Help protect food assistance for millions of people

A new proposal from the US Department of Agriculture threatens to strip food assistance from an estimated three million people. The rule change (see details below) would alter the way states determine eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and free school meals.

This proposed rule change is nothing less than cruel and inhumane. If it goes into effect, more people will go hungry and risk sliding further into poverty. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities warns that, by eliminating food assistance for households with modest savings, the rule change would make it harder for people to “avert a financial crisis or weather an emergency that would otherwise push them deeper into poverty or could lead to homelessness.”

Submit public comments opposing this rule change to the USDA by Sept. 23.

SNAP helps one in eight Americans—approximately 36 million people—and is the most far-reaching and effective program to prevent hunger in the United States. In addition to preventing hunger, SNAP supports long-term health and wellbeing, improves educational outcomes for children, lowers healthcare costs, helps families make ends meet, and fuels local economic development. In 2015, SNAP helped keep more than eight million families from falling below the poverty line.

This latest effort to undermine SNAP is just the most recent in a series of administrative actions designed to shred our social safety net. Over the past few months alone, we’ve seen proposals to change how the federal poverty level is calculated in a way that would cause millions of people to lose access to food, healthcare, and housing assistance, and attempts to force mixed-status immigrant families to separate or face eviction. To ensure health, safety, and wellbeing for all people living in the US, we need policies that seek to eradicate poverty, not policies that deprive people of their most basic needs for food, housing, healthcare, and stability.

The USDA’s proposed rule change would alter the way states determine eligibility for SNAP and free school meals. Currently, 40 states and the District of Columbia can waive income and asset limits and offer food assistance to households with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level, if those households face other expenses—like child care or rent—that leave them with too little money to buy food. Under the proposed rule change, a household’s gross income could not exceed 130% of the federal poverty level, regardless of other expenses a household needs to cover. The rule change would also eliminate food assistance for seniors and people with disabilities if their savings or assets exceed $3,500.

Learn more by visiting the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC).
Submit public comments opposing this rule change to the USDA by September 23.
Write op-eds and letters to the editor to raise public awareness about why SNAP matters to your community. FRAC breaks down SNAP participation by state, county, and congressional district, so you can show how many people in your community will hurt by changes to eligibility.
Encourage your friends and colleagues to take action, too.

Photo credit: MomsRising

Promoting health, safety, and wellbeing through thriving, equitable communities.

Tell the USDA to drop the proposal that would put millions of people at risk of hunger.

Here’s what you can do today to stop this proposal