The Food Bank is profoundly disappointed by the Senate’s passage of this bill, which threatens to significantly harm our region’s most vulnerable residents. If House lawmakers pass the Senate’s bill in its current state, vulnerable neighbors, food banks and the state of Pennsylvania will be forced to hit the panic button. The bill would remove more meals from our neighbor’s plates than the entire charitable food network can serve in one year. We cannot abandon our neighbors at a time when food insecurity is at its highest on record, spiking nearly 40% in Pennsylvania over the past two years, according to Feeding America. To urge the House to care for our seniors, children and families who need us most, visit https://bit.ly/3ZUkLlB or call 800-708-8229 today.
SNAP helps over 42 million people buy groceries; Medicaid provides health coverage to more than 70 million people; and Medicare supports health care for tens of millions of seniors and individuals with disabilities. Many people use a combination of these programs: Around 40% of Medicaid recipients also get SNAP. Together, these programs form a three-legged stool that supports basic needs, including food and health. They improve health outcomes, reduce emergency room visits and save taxpayer dollars in the long run.
Cuts to these programs would hit people who get support from more than one especially hard, forcing them to navigate greater obstacles to access food, health care and stability—all essential for a healthy, thriving life.
Help Protect SNAP: 9 Billion Meals at Risk
For over 50 years, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has guaranteed that millions of people, especially families with kids and seniors with low incomes, can afford groceries. This federal food assistance program ensures everyone, no matter where they live, has access to the food they need.
How SNAP works:
The federal government funds SNAP and sets the basic rules. States help run the program by processing applications and distributing benefits. Families apply through their state, and if they qualify, receive a special card—like a debit card—to buy food. Historically, the federal government has fully funded 100% of the money loaded onto SNAP debit cards for purchasing food. The federal government and states evenly split the cost of administering the program, with each covering 50%.
The proposed bill threatens to undo this guarantee, putting millions at risk. If passed, it could take away enough food for up to 9 billion meals on average every year. For comparison, the entire Feeding America network of food banks, meal programs and church pantries across the country provided 6 billion meals last year.
Here’s how the bill would do that:
- Shifting Costs to States Ends National Food Access Guarantee, Creating State-by-State Uncertainty (4 billion meals lost on average per year): Proposed changes shift funding responsibility to states, many of which lack the budget to pick up these costs. This fractures the national guarantee, creating unpredictable, state-by-state disparities in access—a family’s ability to eat could soon depend on their ZIP code, not their need.
- Smaller SNAP Benefits Make it Harder to Afford Groceries (1 billion meals lost on average per year): Some lawmakers in Congress want to cut the amount families receive in SNAP benefits to help them buy groceries. Right now, the average person gets only $6.16 a day or about $187 a month to buy food, barely enough for staples like bread and milk. Working families deserve real support to put food on the table, not policies that take resources away.
- New Rules Create Barriers for Hardworking Families (4 billion meals lost on average per year): Adding more red tape and other paperwork requirements make it harder, not easier, for people—especially parents and seniors—to access the support they’ve earned. This often results in lost benefits. For the first time ever, parents with children and adults aged 55-64 could lose SNAP benefits if they don’t meet new requirements. This leads to fewer meals annually, forcing families with school-age children and individuals to choose between essentials like food, rent or medicine—choices no one should have to make.
These cuts will take away food from millions of children, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Call your lawmakers today, spread the word and help protect food assistance for everyone.
Call Congress to protect SNAP and Medicaid: 1-800-708-8229