Bay Space meals banks are sounding the alarm about proposed cuts to a important federal meals help program that would consequence within the lack of as much as 9.5 billion meals per 12 months nationally, leaving extra households hungry and additional straining already overwhelmed hunger-relief nonprofits.
Congressional Republicans, by way of the funds reconciliation invoice, wish to make drastic cuts to the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP), which offers meals advantages to greater than 42 million Individuals.
The elimination of roughly $300 billion in federal meals advantages over the following decade might affect greater than 7 million individuals — together with 2 million youngsters — who would see their meals help slashed or terminated, in keeping with the Heart on Funds and Coverage Priorities, a nonpartisan suppose tank.
On Tuesday morning, leaders at 5 of the Bay Space’s largest meals banks, which offer meals help from Santa Clara County to the Oregon border, gathered at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley in San Jose to name on elected officers to guard what SF-Marin Meals Financial institution Govt Director Tanis Crosby known as “the most effective anti-poverty tool that we have in this country.”
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax invoice, which handed by way of the Home of Representatives final month, would restructure SNAP and require every state to extend its funding share. It might additionally impose extra work necessities, and lift the cut-off age from 55 to 65 for the tip of those necessities.
The City Institute just lately discovered that 480,000 households with somebody between the age 55 to 64 would lose advantages solely, and one other 312,000 would obtain decrease advantages.
Gutting meals help might be particularly devastating in California, the place roughly 5.4 million residents depend on SNAP, known as CalFresh regionally, together with 1.5 million youngsters and practically 1.1 million seniors. Through the 2024-25 fiscal 12 months, federal funds made up 99% of whole funds for CalFresh, in keeping with the California Funds and Coverage Heart.
Leslie Bacho, the CEO of Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, mentioned that the proposed cuts are the “greatest rollback of food assistance that we have seen in our modern U.S. history” and are available at a time after they’re seeing a “historic level of need.”
Second Harvest, which offers meals help in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, doubled the quantity of individuals it served when the pandemic hit, going from 250,000 to 500,000 individuals a month — a development that has held regular within the years since.
Bacho mentioned that when SNAP will get reduce, they see extra demand. That’s what occurred in March 2023 when emergency SNAP advantages that have been enacted on the peak of the pandemic got here to an finish.
“As soon as those benefits went away, we saw an instant increase in our line,” Bacho mentioned.
Meals banks nationwide are already feeling the pinch after the Trump administration earlier this 12 months ended a number of important packages, together with $500 million value of deliveries to meals banks and $1 billion in funding to colleges and meals banks to buy meals from native farms and ranchers.
“At food banks we are very efficient and we are very committed, but there is no food bank in the country that has enough staff, funds and food to be able to make up this gap,” Bacho mentioned of the cuts.
Allison Goodwin, the president and CEO of Redwood Empire Meals Financial institution in Santa Rosa, mentioned the lack of SNAP advantages will affect extra than simply the households that depend on this system, however the general economic system, as properly.
“Not only are those families with young children given money into their pockets to purchase groceries, those dollars are going back out to the retailers, grocers, food producers, the drivers that get it there and procurement teams,” she mentioned. “It really is about local jobs and the community benefitting from these SNAP benefits.”
Regi Younger, the chief director of the Alameda County Group Meals Financial institution, mentioned that chopping SNAP advantages “should be personal to all of us.” He mentioned that it “boggles” his thoughts that within the “wealthiest country in the world that we would actively dismantle our most successful hunger relief program.”
Most of the packages that Congressional Republicans are proposing to slash have been within the title of rooting out fraud and waste, reducing the nationwide debt and serving to to fund Trump’s tax cuts.
However the funds proposals being floated in Congress aren’t a executed deal but.
“The good news is that it’s not over, but time is running out,” Younger mentioned. “What are we going to do as a community? What are we going to do as individuals who care about our families? What are we going to do in this moment to ensure that our communities have access to the resources not only that they need, but that they deserve?”
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