Unemployed and hungrier

Re “A GOP bill that dismantles food aid,” Opinion, May 11

The farm bill referenced in David Super’s op-ed article simply reinforces the vitriolic partisanship from leaders who play politics with the lives of real people.

Their misguided proposal for expanded work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will impact millions: veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan; men and women who worked all their lives but live in communities where economic recovery has failed to materialize; and parents laid off from manufacturing jobs due to plant closures.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and his Republican colleagues want to reclassify SNAP as a workforce development program in an ideologically driven bid to vilify the poor and kick people off the program. They don’t want to help people lift themselves out of poverty; they simply want to reduce the number of people on SNAP without regard for the consequences to those impacted by these harsh and severe cuts. Abby J. Leibman Los Angeles The writer is president and chief executive of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

I humbly suggest the GOP create a public-private partnership to replace SNAP.

In lieu of cash or food, each needy recipient would be given a free Costco executive membership. Then they would be encouraged to bring their families to Costco each day and graze at the free sample tables located throughout the stores.

This would provide a variegated diet of hot chicken tenders, burrito samples, sippy cups of vegan smoothies, chips and dips, all topped off with a delicious ice cream sandwich morsel, and at a price far below the current SNAP program. John Gallogly Los Angeles