The nation’s food banks, worried that demand will overwhelm them if Congress follows through on threats to make substantial cuts to food stamps and other nutrition programs, are making their concerns known to key lawmakers, reports Politico. “Food banks and other anti-hunger charities spent the congressional recess urging lawmakers to protect SNAP, with a special focus on moderate Republicans, who will be key in the fate of their party’s decade-long budget plan.”
Lawmakers have proposed $10 billion in mandatory cuts to agriculture programs over the next decade, and much of that would likely come from food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Anti-hunger advocates “fear it would only be the beginning,” says Politico. “A separate — though far less likely — piece of the GOP budget calls for $150 billion in cuts to the program over the next decade.”
The current SNAP budget is $71 billion a year, and while food banks serve some 4 billion meals annually, that’s just 10 percent of what food stamps provide, says Politico.
The prospect of turning SNAP into block grants that states would manage — something that has been suggested by the House Budget Committee — is seen as an “existential threat” to the program by advocates.
“There’s a lot of concerns about the level of cut that’s being considered,” said Kate Leone, senior vice president of government relations for Feeding America, a network that includes most of the major food banks and touches every single county and congressional district in the country. “Obviously the $10 billion is the immediate threat, but the $150 billion? Those cuts are something the food banks just plain can’t make up.”