SNAP is crucial to prevent hunger

As a proponent of Montgomery County’s social safety net, my work supports organizations that provide emergency food to residents struggling with hunger. When faced with covering expenses, many people who can’t make ends meet are forced to cut back on what they feed their families. The food pantries of MontCo Anti-Hunger Network provide roughly 6,000 households across the county with supplemental food each month. While this work is very impactful, it doesn’t go nearly far enough to meet community need.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is our country’s most powerful hunger fighting tool and I couldn’t agree more with those who gathered in Pottstown recently to speak out against proposed requirements that will make SNAP vastly more difficult to access. (“Protestors Urge Costello To Oppose Cuts to Food Stamps,” May 2). More than 52,000 MontCo residents currently receive SNAP benefits, 21,000 of them are children. SNAP connects these residents with 12 times as much food as our food pantries are able to give. Devastating changes proposed in the House Farm Bill (HR2) will jeopardize the ability of thousands of MontCo families to receive SNAP and strain our safety net in ways that charity will never be able to compensate for.

In addition to the aggressive work requirements mentioned in the article, proposed Farm Bill investments in education and job training programs come up very short. Funding by the bill amounts to about $30 per month/per person, a woefully insufficient sum to provide meaningful services to those who need help building skills and finding jobs.

Does allowing people to go hungry make them more productive? Does being hungry lead to better health outcomes or increase the chances that children succeed in school? What good comes to our communities when the incidence of hunger increases among us?

Please, don’t standby and allow these cuts to happen. Use your voice to defend those without enough to eat. Call and tell your U.S. representative to protect SNAP and vote against the proposed Farm Bill revisions!