SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, among other critical programs supporting our farms, families, and environment are on the chopping block with proposed cuts to the 2018 Farm Bill.
Next Tuesday, May 8th, we all NEED to call our members of Congress and tell them to “Vote NO on H.R. 2, the Farm Bill!” (Seriously, this means you and everyone you can reach about this.)
Please make use of Feeding America’s toll free number: 1-888-398-8702. You will be connected to your Representative’s office by putting in your zip code.
It is imperative that we let Congress know that we want them to “Vote NO on H.R. 2” because its rigid work rules will reduce or eliminate SNAP for millions. It will deny food to children, veterans, women, and people needing treatment and/or with disabilities. Please share this number with your networks and ask them to encourage people to call. The number is live now and people can start calling now but please make sure you call on Tuesday, May 8th!
Here are additional resources and information to learn more about how the proposed Farm Bill will slash SNAP and impact our community.
ABFPC’s access cluster has working to humanize the experience of SNAP and show a small slice of the diversity within the program by asking SNAP participants to make an identity statement along with #IAMSNAP.
Cluster members photographed people at the West Village Market and 12 Baskets Cafe and created this short video.
Together with partners from the following organizations, ABFPC authored this op-ed article about SNAP in the Farm Bill. Special thanks to these organizations for their leadership & advocacy:
Durham Farm and Food Network Orange County Food Council, Capital Area Food Network, NC Justice Center, MomsRising
What Are They Thinking?
The foundational legislation for our farm and food system, known as the Farm Bill, will soon be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. This package of laws, which is renewed every few years, authorizes and funds federal nutrition and agriculture programs around the country, supporting farmers and consumers alike. The Farm Bill has a long legacy of bipartisanship.
This year however, legislators seek to undercut and erode the highly effective and efficient Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, along with other crucial nutrition and agricultural programs.
The proposed legislation, rather than empowering low-wage and unemployed people on their path to independence, instead seeks to take away their food, which will ultimately undermine the broader goal we all share to move folks toward self sufficiency.
The effects of these harsh changes will be felt by whole families, including parents raising children, people with disabilities, older workers, low-wage workers, and those unable to find jobs. Significantly, it would extend the reach of work requirements to affect parents of children over the age of 6, and older adults.
Although some claim this bill’s emphasis on work requirements will push people towards work, it ignores the fact that most working-age SNAP participants DO work, but often in unstable or low-wage jobs. Research shows that half of SNAP recipients worked in the month they received benefits, and three-quarters worked in the year before or after that month.
The Urban Institute cites numerous studies showing how “Medicaid and SNAP help workers maintain health and well-being — for themselves and their children — when the jobs they can find don’t include health insurance and related benefits or pay enough to support themselves and their families.” Struggling North Carolinians want to work at least as much as any other group, if not more so.
In purely economic terms, SNAP benefits pumped $2.2 billion into North Carolina’s economy in 2016, and the economic benefits were especially impactful in the agriculture and retail sectors. Research from Moody’s Analytics shows that for every dollar spent on SNAP, $1.70 is put back into the U.S. economy.
Furthermore, SNAP kept 346,000 North Carolinians out of poverty, including 158,000 children, each year between 2010 and 2014. SNAP dollars go to supporting grocers, farmers, paying workers, and buying goods, all of which leads to economic growth. The effects of dismantling SNAP will be felt far beyond the poor who use the program.
As if it weren’t enough to aim legislation at depriving our poorest consumers of food, the bill also undermines our food producers. The bill eliminates four programs – the Farmers Market Promotion Program and Local Food Promotion Program, Value-Added Producer Grant Program, and the National Organic Cost Share Program – that have driven the explosive growth in the local, organic food economy. These cuts will hurt farmers and local food businesses across North Carolina.
The House version of the 2018 Farm Bill seems designed to punish the poor, leaving even children and seniors without access to sufficient food, and it will undermine local farmers—all threatening to damage the economic and social fabric of our country.
To put us back on track toward a better food future where local farmers feed healthy communities, Congress must INVEST in, rather than defund these critical food programs.
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