Ten community and faith-based organizations in Texas are calling on federal lawmakers to protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Hunger advocates are worried the Farm Bill being hammered out in Congress will follow too closely to the House version of the bill. That version drastically cuts SNAP benefits and ups work requirements for those in the program.
On Tuesday, the groups sent a joint letter to Capitol Hill, including to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway of Texas.
Patrick Bresette is the executive director of Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, one of the signers of the letter. He says 75 percent of adults receiving SNAP benefits are working. The trouble, he says, is that they’re often in unstable jobs or low-wage jobs, or they’re able to get hours one month, not enough hours the next month, and so SNAP is one of the critical programs to help them keep food on the table.
The letter to federal officials dovetails with a report issued Wednesday by finance website WalletHub that looks at states with the most underprivileged children. While Texas lands at number 29 overall, the state ranks fifth worst in terms of childhood food security.
Bresette says he’s not surprised by the WalletHub ranking at all. He also says perceptions of families in SNAP tend to get wrapped up in a lot of myths.
"When I talk to those families, all of them wish to be earning more income and not need the program at all," Bresette says. "It’s not a lifestyle, as some people might suggest."
Bresette says SNAP is actually one of the most efficient and beneficial programs in the country. And that what it doesn’t need is bureaucracy getting in the way.
Rep. Conaway did not respond to a request for comment before this story was published.
