Supporting food program is a SNAP

Dear Editor,

When you think about helping people who are hungry, the image that might come to mind is the work done at the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley and the nearly 400 food pantries, soup kitchens and other agencies who work with us to provide food to thousands of people who might otherwise go without.

But the support the Food Bank provides can only go so far.

Many of the people who benefit from the Food Bank also use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to help put food on their table. In Ulster County, SNAP helps more than 18,000 people, some of whom have experienced a job layoff or serious illness, or who otherwise might need a little extra help to get by in hard times. Nationwide, nearly two-thirds of the people helped by SNAP are our most vulnerable — children, seniors, or people with disabilities.

As Congress begins debating a new Farm Bill, which funds SNAP and is renewed every five years, this program could be at risk.

For every meal provided by a food bank, SNAP provides 12 meals — a gap that charity simply can’t fill.

SNAP benefits are modest in New York — just about $1.50 per person per meal — but they make a big difference for the people who receive them. When families use SNAP to help meet their monthly grocery bill, they have more take-home pay left for rent, utilities, child care, health care, transportation, and other bills.

One in five children uses SNAP in New York. Research shows that low-income people who received SNAP as children are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to suffer from costly long-term health problems.

Almost 70 percent of adults on SNAP who are not elderly or disabled have worked in the past year.

It is immoral to cut programs that help millions of Americans put food on the table. We cannot abandon the 40 percent of SNAP households with seniors that need help balancing food costs with medical expenses and housing. Or the more than 35 percent of SNAP households with children who can go to school on a full stomach thanks to SNAP. The 67,000 veterans in New York who have turned to SNAP deserve better, too.

We hope U.S. Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, in his role on the House Agriculture Committee, will make the right choice and work to oppose harmful cuts and changes to SNAP in the Farm Bill. Linda Bopp, executive director, Hunger Solutions New York Paul A. Stermer, director, Food Bank of the Hudson Valley