ACTION ALERT: Protect federal nutrition assistance programs

More than 820,000 people in Cook County turn to SNAP to access nutritious food.

This morning, the House Committee on Agriculture is discussing its version of the 2012 Farm Bill.  The Farm Bill is an important piece of legislation which administers and authorizes the majority of federal funding for nutrition assistance programs, including The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, (which provides USDA commodities to food banks) and SNAP (also known as Food Stamps). 

Last week, we saw the provisions of the House committee draft of the bill, and we were disheartened to see severe and far-reaching cuts to SNAP, a program that nearly 46.2 million people across the country depend on to access food, including more than 820,000 people in Cook County.  These proposed cuts would devastate the food safety net through reductions in funding for SNAP by almost $16.5 billion over 10 years, which would result in 500,000 Americans seeing a reduction of $90 every month in their benefits, and 2 to 3 million Americans losing their food assistance entirely. 

These cuts would drastically reduce the ability of low-income individuals to feed themselves and their families.  Take action TODAY against these cuts, your voice can make a difference!  Go to our Advocacy Center to take action and ask your Representative in Congress to oppose cuts to vital nutrition programs like SNAP in the Farm Bill.  Hungry people in our communities turn to these programs to put food on the table each month!