Keeping Food in Focus: Protecting SNAP by Jennifer Pedzinski What are life’s basic necessities? What are the three things we all need in order to survive? Most of us will have the same answers—food, shelter, and clothing—and most of us would answer in that order, too, with food at the top of the list. But it seems that Congress needs to be reminded of this, as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “Super-Committee) considers cutting funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly Food Stamps). Over 44 million low-income people in America (that’s 1 in 7) receive SNAP assistance each year, with most benefit periods lasting for 6 months, while some are as short as 1 month or as long as 3 years. As Congress debates which programs to keep and which to cut, now is the time to decide what our stand will be, and to communicate our convictions to congress, before the decisions are made and 44 million people who are already struggling to pay the bills are told to seek assistance elsewhere. ‘Sandra’, a single mom in her late twenties, never thought she would need to rely on federal programs to put food on the table. On November 26, even as she spoke of her gratitude for SNAP, Sandra admitted she had been without milk for more than a week because she only had 11 cents left for the month. According to the Department of Agriculture, (responsible for administering SNAP), the average monthly benefit in 2010 was $133.79, or approximately $31.50 a week. Fighting Poverty with Faith (a nationwide, interfaith movement to cut domestic poverty in half by 2020) issued the Food Stamp Challenge in October, urging community members and elected officials to live for one week on the average food stamp allotment, in order to better understand how the program works on a personal level and to highlight the importance of feeding programs to alleviate hunger in the US. Sandra, a food stamp recipient, says she still worries about shelter and clothes for her infant son as she looks for work, but also says she is truly grateful for the relief she has knowing that, as long as she plans carefully, they won’t go hungry. Who knew what a difference $31.50 could make? For more information visit the links above and consider attempting to live for one week with the challenge that many like Sandra have to face every day. Jennifer Pedzinski is a student at Palmer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, working toward her Masters Degrees in Divinity and International Development. She works as a youth minister at Wallingford Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania.
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