"Nutrition is a fundamental need and taking food assistance away from those struggling to get by won't help them get back on their feet," says Share Our Strength Senior Vice President Lisa Davis.
Contact: Meredith Jorss at 202.769.5554 or mjorss@strength.org
Washington, D.C. - This morning, the White House finalized a rule that will tighten work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) on Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), likely resulting in nearly 700,000 people losing benefits. The following is a statement from Share Our Strength’s Senior Vice President, Lisa Davis.
“It is deeply disappointing that despite overwhelming opposition to this proposal, the White House has finalized a rule that stiffens work requirements for millions of SNAP participants, which will likely lead to hundreds of thousands of people losing their benefits.
Community members working on the frontlines of hunger – from physicians and nurses, to social workers and foster care representatives – stood up in chorus to underscore what should be commonsense: nutrition is a fundamental need and taking food assistance away from those struggling to get by won’t help them get back on their feet.
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in September, food insecurity among adults and children has finally declined to pre-recession (2007) levels. SNAP, a program that lifts millions of people out of poverty and food insecurity each year, has played a critical role in this progress. That’s why it’s inexplicable that the Administration continues to propose deep cuts and harmful policy changes to the program, including several that have been repeatedly rejected by Congress.
Over the last year, three new rules have been proposed that create stricter work requirements for program eligibility, cap deductions for utility allowance and limit access to SNAP for working poor families.
A new study by the Urban Institute shows that the combined impact of these rules, two of which are not yet final, would result in 3.7 million fewer people receiving SNAP in an average month, millions more experiencing reductions in monthly benefits and 982,000 students losing automatic access to free or reduced price school meals.
While our economy has recovered from the effects of the great recession, the financial realities of far too many people across our nation have not. Punishing those who cannot find work or have limited skills, health issues or inadequate transportation by taking away critical food assistance will do nothing to help them find a job or get back on their feet; it will only cause hardship and hunger. Share Our Strength strongly opposes this rule.”
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But 1 in 7 kids will face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger through effective programs that provide kids with the food they need. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization working to end hunger and poverty. Join us at NoKidHungry.org