The passage of President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill is raising concerns that thousands of people in the D.C. region are at risk of losing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that provide food assistance for low-income families and senior citizens.
Advocates fear many of our most vulnerable neighbors could find themselves unable to put food on the table.
Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank, worries the changes to eligibility passed by congressional Republicans will leave thousands of those families unable to provide healthy meals.
“Early estimates that the Urban Institute has provided so far suggest 50,000 of those 480,000 individuals stand to lose benefits and stand to lose about $170 a month in those benefits. That’s significant,” Muthiah said, adding, “$170 a month for a family of four is many, many meals. It’s over a week’s worth of meals a month that they’re now going to receive less of.”
Muthiah says food banks were already stretched thin before these cuts were approved.
“Oh, I’m sure we won’t be able to keep up with the demand,” she said. “That’s a significant level of meals, you know, shortage and a gap of meals.”
The food bank has been distributing about 60 million meals’ worth of food each year over the past few years —and, Muthiah said, “that’s double what we were distributing pre-pandemic. So you can see that the need remains really high across our community.”
Ava Ross, CEO and founder of the Tabula Rasa Domestic Violence organization, said she’s worried that women who lose their SNAP benefits might be reluctant to leave a dangerous relationship because they would be unable to feed their children.
“We have a very deep concern about the recent cuts in SNAP,” Ross said.
She said the cuts will have a “profound effect” on survivors and the barriers they face while trying to rebuild their lives after domestic violence.
The loss of SNAP benefits will increase the risk of victims either returning to abusive relationships, or staying in them out of necessity, Ross said.
The legislation also requires states to fund a portion of those SNAP benefits, placing further financial burdens on local governments already dealing with budget shortfalls.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/f6ZlSxG
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