LA Times Readers React: Kicking the unemployed off SNAP will make people hungry, and it won’t lift them out of poverty

Abby J. Leibman

May 13, 2018

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To the editor: The farm bill referenced in David Super’s op-ed article, “The new Republican farm bill will dismantle our programs to feed the needy,” simply reinforces the vitriolic partisanship from leaders who play politics with the lives of real people.

Their misguided proposal for expanded work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will impact millions: veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan; men and women who worked all their lives but live in communities where economic recovery has failed to materialize; and parents laid off from manufacturing jobs due to plant closures.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and his Republican colleagues want to reclassify SNAP as a workforce development program in an ideologically driven bid to vilify the poor and kick people off the program. They don’t want to help people lift themselves out of poverty; they simply want to reduce the number of people on SNAP without regard for the consequences to those impacted by these harsh and severe cuts.

Abby J. Leibman, Los Angeles

The writer is president and chief executive of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

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Historic Cuts to SNAP Deepen the War on Women (Ms. Magazine)

The last few months in Washington, D.C., have been consumed with political theatrics around the budget reconciliation process. Republicans in the House and Senate scrambled to pass legislation that will cut $184 billion from SNAP through 2034—by far the largest cut to SNAP in the program’s history—to finance tax cuts for the wealthy big businesses. They also hope to increase funding for pursuit of immigrants. Read more.

House Ag Dems: OBBBA will allow states to end SNAP (The Fence Post)

States will be allowed to opt out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program if state officials decide they cannot or will not pay the increased cost share under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Democratic members of the House Agriculture Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee repeatedly pointed out at a hearing today. The three witnesses all agreed. Read more.

Partnering with MAZON: Fighting Hunger and Nourishing the Jewish Soul (TC Jewfolk)

TC Jewfolk is proud to partner with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger – a national organization inspired by Jewish values – to fight to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel.

“We need committed advocates who do the work to move legislation aimed at ending hunger forward, as well as to fight harmful policies that would erode the safety net that enables so many people to put food on the table,” Haviv explained. “That work must happen at every level, and we are committed to a strong effort in statehouses nationwide.” Read more.