It’s likely that I am alive today because of food stamps.
I’ve talked a great deal about my childhood poverty, and I’m not going to talk about it again now (if you’d like to know more, you can read about it over at Dresden’s blog here).
But I know that without the food stamps my mom and I received when I was a little girl were absolutely, positively, the only reason we had food to eat. At all.
And now, they are talking about cutting funding to the program that offers this same small bit of grace to families that are currently struggling.
This pisses me right the fuck off.
Share Our Strength has reached out to some bloggers asking us to talk about the Farm Bill – which also covers all of the funding for SNAP, the program that provides families with the debit cards that are today’s version of food stamps.
Apparently, major cuts to SNAP are currently on the table. Share Our Strength states it this way:
Members of Congress are working to reauthorize the Farm Bill, legislation that provides funding for the SNAP program and for the SNAP education program. Drastic cuts to SNAP are on the table for the Farm Bill, and nearly half of all SNAP participants are children. If Congress cuts funding for this poverty-relieving program, it will affect millions of children and families, leaving them even more vulnerable to hunger. As one of the wealthiest nations in the world, we cannot afford to let our children go hungry. Ensuring our children have enough to eat must be a priority for our nation.
Do you know how a family qualifies for SNAP? A family of four would earn $1,800 a month or less. Take a minute and add up your bills; how easily could you go on $1,800 for a family of four? For me, that’s pretty much our mortgage and a couple utility bills, without much else.
Here are some hunger facts from Share Our Strength.
• 1 in 5 kids in America doesn’t get enough to eat.
• Nearly 50% of SNAP participants are children.
• More than 46 million Americans – a majority of whom are seniors, children, or people
with disabilities – rely on SNAP to feed their families.• The average monthly SNAP benefit = $1.48 per meal
• More than two-thirds of the funds in the most recent Farm Bill help feed these hungry
kids through Federal Nutrition Programs.
If you have a heart (and I know you do), you care about children being hungry. Go here and ask Congress to spare SNAP and pass the Farm Bill without severe cuts.
Please.
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I was not compensated for this post. It’s just an issue near and dear to my heart.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I wasn’t aware of SNAP–thank you for bringing attention to it. And thank you for sharing your story. I think too often in this country people equate poverty with some kind of moral failing which is easier to do when the poor are faceless and have no voice.
Thanks for a great post. Twenty years ago, I was a single mom struggling with working and going to college. Food stamps helped get me and my daughter through. Without that help, I wouldn’t be a college graduate with a great job.
I used the link to send letters to congress and share my story. I also posted links to Facebook.
As a taxpayer, this is the kind of stuff I WANT my tax dollars to fund, rather than the corporate welfare our country seems so inclined to do. I hope they listen to us.
Thank you for sharing your stories Cecily. I have reposted this on my Facebook page because I know there are parents out there struggling as much as I am right now that could use this help!
Here is a recent report on how food stamps have become the “new welfare,” since it is nigh on impossible to qualify for cash support since Clinton’s Welfare Reform. http://www.npr.org/2012/04/22/151166529/poverty-in-america-defining-the-new-poor
Republicans were in control of Congress when Welfare Reform was passed, and they’re in control of at least one house right now. I’m sure food stamp reform is at the top of their agenda for reducing government assistance across the board. It’s a damn shame that the least politically savvy people are the ones stepped on by the rest of us who elected this Congress.
I support this, Cecily. I too had food stamps growing up, felt much of the same shame/stigma. I hate that kids and poor people are the ones who need to feed the fat cats. sad.
Thanks for blogging about this. I’ll be sure to pass the petition info along next time I do one of my Food Stamp Food posts.
I think it’s a tough issue. I think part of the issue is that because there is so much of a stigma around food stamps you’re unlikely to think you know anyone who is on them. Thus for many people there the only time they are exposed to the program and the kind of people who use it is when some kind of scandal or abuse happens so they often make the leap that everyone is abusing the program.
I really dislike that most of america thinks SNAP recipients are crack addicts or bums. That they don’t work and just sit back and collect ‘free’ food money. My daughter, single mother of 2, is a full-time student, works part-time, which means she pays taxes.
Thanks for shedding light on a misunderstood program.