Interfaith Community Calls on Senate to Reverse Harmful SNAP Cuts with Farm Bill
MAZON led 35 national faith-based organizations in calling on the Senate to pass a Farm Bill that meaningfully addresses hunger in America. In a letter sent this week to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, our coalition was clear: do not advance the House’s Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 as written.
The reason is straightforward. Over 47 million Americans are hungry. The Farm Bill is one of the most powerful tools Congress has to fight food insecurity. And the version of the Farm Bill the House passed in April does nothing to meet that crisis.
A Promise the House Broke
The Farm Bill has historically been a rare bipartisan achievement, a package that brought both parties together around a shared commitment to America’s farmers and families. That spirit is damaged. And federal anti-hunger programs are paying the price.
Last summer’s Republican budget reconciliation law delivered the largest cut to SNAP in the history of the program, an estimated $187 billion over the next decade. Last July, over 41 million Americans were benefiting from SNAP. Fast forward to nearly a year later, over 3 million people have been dropped from SNAP – a staggering 9% decrease. Families who were barely making ends meet are in very dangerous territory. States are scrambling to implement sweeping new work reporting requirements and time limits while bracing for additional costs they were never resourced to absorb. SNAP administrators and local officials are sounding alarms about their ability to keep the program running in their states.
The Farm Bill is Congress’s chance to respond to this manufactured emergency. The House missed the moment. The Senate cannot.
Why Faith Communities Are Demanding More
The coalition behind this letter spans Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Quaker, Lutheran, Methodist, Muslim, Unitarian, and many more traditions. Our theologies differ. Our obligation does not.
Every faith tradition in this coalition holds some version of the same truth: we are responsible for one another. Feeding the hungry is not optional. It is not charity in the discretionary sense. It is a moral mandate. And when government policy actively deepens hunger rather than addressing it, faith communities have a responsibility to speak out.
We have made clear for years that charity alone cannot feed 47 million people. Our food pantries, emergency funds, and congregation-based networks are essential, but they should be a last resort instead of a first option for families. The federal government has a moral duty to be part of that response, and a Farm Bill that fails to restore SNAP is a failure of that commitment.
What the Senate Must Do
State and local officials need relief now. Hungry families need relief now. The Senate has what the House neglected: a real opportunity to pass a Farm Bill that meets the moment.
That means restoring and strengthening SNAP. It means providing relief to states saddled with new cost burdens. It means investing in systems that reduce and end food insecurity.
We will not stop pushing. The Senate must hear us.
Read the full interfaith letter to the Senate Agriculture Committee here.
See the Full List of Signers:
Alliance of Baptists
American Friends Service Committee
Avodah
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Bread for the World
Center for Jewish Food Ethics
Church World Service
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Region
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Faith in Action
Franciscan Action Network
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Human Appeal USA
ICNA Relief
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Keshet
Kirva
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Council of Churches USA
National Council of Jewish Women
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
Pax Christi USA
Rabbinical Assembly
Reconstructing Judaism
Sojourners
The Episcopal Church
The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
Union for Reform Judaism
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
United Church of Christ
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Uri L’Tzedek