Food stamps vital to constant battle against hunger in US
President Trump’s efforts to reduce the food stamp program for poor Americans harms the country. The Trump administration just announced plans that would end eligibility for food stamps to 3 million Americans living in hunger.
Food stamps (aka SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is a valuable safety net that gives poor families extra purchasing power at grocery stores.
The nation’s foodbank system, Feeding America, sent out a strong protest against Trump’s move. A statement from the organization read “We know that SNAP is a lifeline for millions of Americans, so we must strongly oppose the administration’s current effort to reduce eligibility for this assistance that helps put food on the table for so many people we serve.”
Hearing from people who have used SNAP you realize it helps them get through difficult times of job loss, reduced income or medical traumas. SNAP prevents a family from going hungry during the darkest periods. Putting food on the table gives them hope and a chance to escape poverty.
We must also remember the history and purpose behind food stamps. During World War II food stamps were used to help hungry American families on the home front. This kept the nation strong.
Mary Hornaday of the Christian Science Monitor wrote in 1940 that food stamps “were being looked upon in official circles as an important adjunct of national defense.” They turned out to be right as food stamps were continued at home even after America entered the war officially in 1941.
The New York Times cited a report stating “the development of the food stamp plan grew out of the search for more effective ways of expanding the domestic market for the American farmer and combating malnutrition among millions of American families.”
During the food stamp expansion of World War II millions of American children also received free school lunches to combat hunger.
Today we see just the opposite. Feeding America says the Trump food stamp cuts ”would also take free school meals away from hundreds of thousands of children whose enrollment is linked to their families’ SNAP participation.”
This is wrong. We should be fighting hunger together as a nation, not fighting the poor and hungry as Trump’s policies are consistently doing.
We should be protecting the SNAP program from cuts. Reducing the program does not make hunger disappear in our country.
There are almost 40 million Americans living in hunger. We should be helping them escape hunger, not reducing programs that keep them afloat. Eliminating food stamps also puts huge pressure on food banks to make up the difference. Our food banks have a tough enough time keeping up with hunger without adding more burden to them.
Instead of food cuts, we should seek to expand assistance to impoverished Americans. Congress, for example, can pass summer feeding expansion to allow more impoverished children to get free meals during the summer.
It’s about public health to keep children and their families well-nourished and eliminate hunger. If you want to improve America’s health care system, try nutrition for all.
We should be protecting the SNAP program from cuts and working to prevent and eliminate hunger in our communities.
William Lambers of Cincinnati is an author, journalist and historian.