The Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP) is our country’s most effective tool to fight hunger. SNAP helps food insecure people pay for rising food prices while making room in their budgets for other needs such as housing and utilities. SNAP is a particularly important tool for Hispanic-headed households, which make up 20% of all SNAP households and are more than twice as likely to be food insecure as white-headed households.
Despite overwhelming evidence that SNAP lifts people out of poverty, conservative politicians are pushing for cuts that put children, the elderly, and other members of our communities at risk of losing some of their food aid. Dozens of Republicans in the House of Representatives recently introduced a bill that would jeopardize the benefits of 10 million people – about one in four SNAP participants – including 4 million children.
SNAP helps millions of children, low-income seniors, the disabled, and low-income veterans. It also serves millions of workers who struggle with low wages, inconsistent schedules or temporary unemployment.
SNAP also helps prevent hardship during economic crises. During the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, when hunger was poised to soar, expanded SNAP benefits and other COVID relief measures saved millions of people from hunger.
SNAP improves immediate and long-term health outcomes for recipients, especially children; for them, SNAP means higher levels of education, higher school completion rates, and better jobs as adults.
Yet conservative politicians in the House of Representatives continue to push for disastrous SNAP cuts. Some have even suggested that they won’t get through the debt ceiling hike needed to keep our economy stable without cutting back on programs like SNAP. At the same time, they are pushing for tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and corporations. It is not right.
A bill from Republicans in the House of Representatives would dramatically expand SNAP’s existing hard work requirements to take food away from low-income parents with children over six years of age, the elderly, and people living in areas lacking jobs.
Supporters of the bill justify these additional work requirements with the false assumption that SNAP participants are not working and should be forced to do so. In fact, most people on SNAP who can work do. Studies have shown that these requirements do not help people get jobs or increase their incomes. Due to problems in the low wage labor market, people often work multiple jobs but have limited hours; lack of childcare and paid sick and family leave means that illness or caregiving responsibilities can lead to temporary unemployment; continued discrimination in the labor market limits employment opportunities for many workers. Job requirements do nothing to remove these barriers, they simply deprive people of food.
SNAP feeds those members of our community who are most vulnerable to hunger and should be improved, not gutted. As the Debt Ceiling and Farm Bill Debate approaches, we are urging members of Congress to reverse the harmful SNAP cuts that are pushing Hispanics into poverty.
* Ty Jones CoxVice President for Food Aid, Center for Fiscal Policy Priorities
Source: La Opinion
David Ortiz is an opinionated and well-versed author, known for his thought-provoking and persuasive writing on various matters. He currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker, where he shares his insight and perspective on today’s most pressing issues. David’s unique voice and writing style make his articles a must-read for those seeking a different point of view.