Hunger-fighting groups in Tennessee are warning that proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP), which used to be called “food stamps,” could make it harder for people to get food as the budget reconciliation bill goes back to the House.
The programme helps more than 711,000 people in Tennessee, and many of them are families with children.
The head of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Rhonda Chafin, said that the cuts could affect almost 40% of Americans and be “devastating” for low-income families in rural Tennessee.
“This is one of the most harmful bills to hunger relief, simply because of the drastic cuts to a key programme,” she noted. “And this bill on the Senate side, $200 billion over 10 years, is planned to be cut to the SNAP programme.”
Chafin also said that Feeding America said the proposed cuts would mean that up to 9 billion meals a year would be taken away from people who are hungry through SNAP and at least 8 million people could lose their Medicaid health insurance.
It’s likely that President Trump will get the budget bill by Friday.
Chafin said If the government cuts meal programmes, Second Harvest won’t be able to make up the difference. Donations are down, USDA shipments have been cut, and the organisation has already had to cut its budget, even though it got more help after recent natural disasters.
“If we see cuts to SNAP, and we’ve already received cuts in federal commodity and we’re seeing that our donations are down, potentially, someone is going to go without food that they were depending on SNAP, and we’re not going to have enough food to fill the gap and provide for them,” she said.
Chafin also said that their eight-county area is bigger than 3,000 square miles and has more than 70 mobile pantries and 110 agency partners that help 330 food distribution sites every month.
