SNAP + SNAP ED = Smart Policy

Huffington Post 

Blog by Billy Shore

Founder and CEO, Share Our Strength

Posted 5/17/2013 11:20 am 

This week, Congressional committees voted to cut funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) and SNAP-Education, which funds programs that help families access healthy food and get the most nutrition from their limited dollars. This is short-sighted and impractical.

The powerful effect that SNAP and SNAP-Ed can have on a family is a story best told not by me but by a woman who has been a part of our No Kid Hungry campaign, Lareese. 

Lareese is a busy mother of two. She's trained as a dental assistant, but on-and-off employment in her small town has sometimes made it tough to make ends meet. Her meager income has made it hard to feed her family, but the $1.80 she gets per person per meal through SNAP benefits has made it possible to put food on the table.

She took a six-week cooking and nutrition education course through No Kid Hungry's Cooking Matters, the type of program that SNAP-Ed supports. In Cooking Matters, a chef taught Lareese to cut up a whole chicken, to bake instead of fry and shared ways to stretch ingredients. A nutritionist taught her to read food labels at the store, to watch out for added sugar and sodium, and to find healthier items even when eating out. Each week, Lareese left empowered with a new set of skills. She also left with a bag of groceries, to practice making the healthy meals taught in class. 

Dinnertime looks very different at Lareese's house now. Her SNAP benefits last longer than they did before the course - up to a week and a half longer sometimes. She's stretching her dollars primarily by shopping smarter - writing a list, comparing unit prices, and reading food labels. 'This little thing is three gulps and you've had 25 grams of sugar!' Lareese exclaimed about an 8 oz. bottle of mango soda back when we tagged along on a grocery trip.

This is just one example of how nutrition education can make a real difference in the lives of real Americans trying to do the best for their families. Yet Congress today is looking to slash funding for SNAP and SNAP education. 

Smart fiscal policy today must look to tomorrow. Ensuring our kids get the healthy food they need through programs like SNAP is a smart investment. Research shows kids who get the healthy food they need are likely to have fewer health problems, do better in school and grow up stronger. Investing in programs like SNAP and SNAP-Ed today will off-set enormous expenses in health-care costs, educational failures and lost wages in the future.

 These programs work in unison: parents like Lareese need both benefits to put food on the table, and education to maximize those benefits in a healthy way.

Responsible, proactive policy starts with protecting SNAP. Join me in urging Congress to protect funding for this important program.

 Follow Billy Shore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billshore

No Time to Cut Food Stamps

The New York Times Editorial
Published May 13, 2013

“Families who are living in poverty did not spend this nation into debt,” says Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, “and we should not be trying to balance the budget on their backs.” That humane principle will guide the New York Democrat as she seeks to persuade colleagues to resist a proposed $4.1 billion cut in food stamps in an omnibus farm bill heading toward Senate agriculture committee vote.

The cut, spread over 10 years, is a lot less than the devastating $20 billion cut over the next decade the Republican-controlled House Agriculture Committee is considering. Yet food stamps are already scheduled to take a hit when increases approved in the 2009 economic recovery act expire in November. The $4.1 billion reduction would result in an average cut of $90 per month for nearly 500,000 households nationwide, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

It is especially galling that members of committee, led by Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat of Michigan, seem determined to hurt struggling families and children while perpetuating unnecessary benefits for big agriculture. Ms. Gillibrand would pay for restoring the trims to food benefits by lowering the subsidies to highly profitable crop insurance companies based overseas. 

Some lawmakers complain that parts of the current law providing for enhanced food stamp benefits could be manipulated by states. But the program has very little fraud and, in any case, there is no justification for reducing benefits over all. Allowing cuts in food stamps is the wrong position fiscally and morally, and a terrible strategy for beginning negotiations with the House.

View the Editorial

A Closer Look at Who Benefits from SNAP: State-by-State Fact Sheets

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has recently updated and posted new papers on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  They have useful information on the program and the role it plays at both the national and state level.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, reaching nearly 48 million people nationwide in 2012 alone. These fact sheets provide state-by-state data on who participates in the SNAP program, the benefits they receive, and SNAP’s role in strengthening the economy.

To view the NYS SNAP Fact sheet

To view the larger list of all States

School Grant Deadline Extended to May 3, 2013

Action for Healthy Kids is extending the deadline for our School Grants for Healthy Kids application.  Schools now have until May 3, 2013 to submit a proposal to enhance their school breakfast or physical activity initiatives.  

Click here for more information. 

See A Place at the Table

A new documentary about hunger in America called A Place at the Table is being shown in theaters across the country and is available on iTunes or On Demand.

Fifty million people in the U.S.—one in four children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine the issue of hunger in America through the lens of three people struggling with food insecurity.

Visit the web site to find a screening near you or to learn how to host a screening.

President Obama's 2014 Budget Supports Nutrition Programs

Yesterday, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Proposal. It protects and proposes to strengthen the nation’s nutrition safety net for the many Americans who continue to struggle with hunger. Chief among his proposals is the restoration of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits made in the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and scheduled to take place in FY 2013.

Click here to read a full analysis from our partners at the Food Research and Action Center.

SNAP Works for the Economy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                          Contact: Alisa Costa

518.436.8757 x122

Albany NY—April 9, 2013- Everyday people make tough decisions between paying heating bills, medical bills, rent, or buying groceries.  For struggling New Yorkers every dollar makes a difference. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the new name for the Food Stamp Program, can help make these decisions a little easier, while benefiting the local economy at the same time.

Federally funded SNAP benefits help struggling families afford food. Money is automatically deposited in participants’ accounts that are accessed using an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card. Participants may choose to buy most foods and food-producing seeds and plants from approved local stores, bodegas and farmers’ markets.

Purchases made with SNAP have an economic ripple effect. Recipients spend benefits immediately at local stores. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), every $5 in SNAP food purchases generates more than $9 in economic activity.

Grocery stores have experienced an increase in SNAP purchases in the last several years.  “Stores which did not take SNAP benefits in the past found a dramatic increase in requests from recipients and immediately became vendors,” said Mitch Klein of Krasdale Foods. “Our supermarkets play an important role in the community by providing quality at competitive prices, in addition to all the jobs for the community that the store is situated in.” In 2012, more than $5 billion in SNAP benefits were used across the state. “While the supermarket is a business for profit, we are also keenly aware that what we offer is critical to the wellbeing of families therefore we need a high level of in-stock products that will fit the budget of all our customers while also finding ways to provide the consumer with even greater savings,” he said.

SNAP benefits are helping farmers too. According to the USDA, on average, $1 billion of retail food demand by SNAP recipients generates 3,000 farm jobs across the United States.

When SNAP purchases are made at farmers markets, the benefits stay local. Throughout New York State, more than 210 farmers markets accept SNAP EBT payments. Recipients can leverage even more dollars through healthy food incentive programs.

Local farmers, especially at farmers’ markets, are seeing a difference. “If it wasn’t for SNAP we wouldn’t be at some of these farmers’ markets. It’s close to 50-70% of our sales,” said Ken Migliorelli, owner of Migliorelli Farm in Tivoli, NY. “I think it’s a great program, beneficial to farmers and our company. It’s a win, win situation for everyone involved.” 

According to the Farmers’ Market Federation of New York State, in 2011, New Yorkers spent about $2.6 million using EBT cards at farmers markets, the second highest amount in the country. This spending was up 34 percent from 2010 thanks to more farmers’ markets accepting EBT.

New Yorkers having trouble affording food can learn more about SNAP and other nutrition assistance programs through the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP).  NOEP is available in 52 counties and every borough in New York City to provide outreach, education, and application assistance.

To find a local NOEP provider or to learn more about SNAP and other nutrition assistance programs, visit www.FoodHelpNY.org.

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Hunger Solutions New York is a statewide organization dedicated to alleviating hunger for all New Yorkers. For more information visit www.HungerSolutionsNY.org.