SNAP Cuts Affect Poorest of the Poor

Written By Big Garden

by Nathan Morgan, Executive Director

The decision by the US Department of Agriculture last week to remove 700,000 individuals from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is disgraceful. The people affected by this rule change are the poorest of the poor according to Robert Campbell, managing director of Feeding America, with an average income of roughly $2000 per year. Two other pending decisions by the USDA would remove another 3 million people from SNAP.

These cuts to food aid come while the average life expectancy of Americans has declined for three years in a row and food pantries have seen enormous increases in the number of senior citizens seeking food aid. The Trump administration has criticized SNAP as a “way of life” for many people. What they don’t tell you is that 75% of SNAP recipients are employed, but they don’t make enough money to provide for their basic needs each month. Cutting SNAP benefits won’t miraculously provide higher paying jobs with good benefits to low-income people. It is simply a mean-spirited attempt by this administration to hurt those who are already suffering in order to help pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And make no mistake, people will go hungry because of this decision by the USDA. Churches, nonprofits, and food pantries will do all they can to fill the gap, but the need is too great. Anyone who says otherwise is either uninformed or being deliberately dishonest.

  • Join me in contacting Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and voicing your opinion on these cuts to SNAP. You can leave a comment for him here: https://www.usda.gov/tellsonny.

  • You can contact Omaha Area U.S. Congressman Don Bacon who serves on the House Agriculture Committee here: https://bacon.house.gov/contact/email

  • You can also contact Nebraska’s Senator Deb Fischer who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee and let her know that you oppose these cuts. You can leave her a comment here: https://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/?p=email-deb

  • And if you live in Kansas, you can contact Senator Pat Roberts who is the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee here: https://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/?p=EmailPat

Thank you for speaking up for our most vulnerable community members.

Big Garden
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