“Kids deserve better than a Farm Bill that makes it harder to put food on the table,” said Kelemen. “By passing this Farm Bill without mitigating the harm of the historic SNAP cuts, the House has effectively voted to lock those cuts in place for five years or more.”
Contact: Ryan Flaherty at rflaherty@strength.org
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the House of Representatives passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act, legislation that reauthorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other key nutrition programs. The Senate still needs to consider the Farm Bill. The following is a statement from George Kelemen, senior vice president for Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign:
“Kids deserve better than a Farm Bill that makes it harder to put food on the table. By passing this Farm Bill without mitigating the harm of the historic SNAP cuts, the House has effectively voted to lock those cuts in place for five years or more, offering no relief to the families and states struggling with the consequences.
“The bill passed by the House does nothing to mitigate the damage being done by the nearly $200b in cuts to SNAP approved last year, and we’re already seeing the consequences. More than 3 million people lost access to SNAP in the months after H.R.1 passed, and these numbers are expected to increase. This will only get worse as more families miss out on the food assistance they need even as grocery prices grow more unaffordable.
“States are also facing greater SNAP cost-sharing requirements under these cuts, threatening participant access to the program. This bill also fails to provide additional federal support for states to transition to SNAP EBT chip cards to strengthen EBT card security in order to prevent SNAP skimming. Altogether, this is a missed opportunity to make meaningful improvements to SNAP, and a guarantee that the effects of these unprecedented cuts will continue.
“Our best opportunity to prevent the impending hunger crisis is slipping away. The Senate must now do the right thing for kids and families by returning to a bipartisan Farm Bill process that restores, protects, and invests in SNAP before it is too late.”
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.