Wednesday, July 31, 2019

President Trump Wants To Cut Food Stamps (SNAP)

The administration is painting a program that has successfully fed hungry children, seniors and disabled people as rife with fraud. Don't believe it! SNAP is actually on of the most efficiently run programs in the country. 

"In trying to make a case for the proposal, the Administration argues that states are approving households for SNAP under BBCE without checking their incomes or assessing their need for food assistance. The claim is incorrect. To receive SNAP, all households, including those eligible under BBCE, must apply, be interviewed, and document that their monthly income and expenses, such as high housing and child care costs, leave them with too little disposable income to afford a basic, adequate diet. Indeed, the Department of Agriculture’s own data show that only about 0.2 percent of SNAP benefits went in 2017 to households with monthly disposable incomes — net income after deducting certain expenses like high housing and child care costs — above the poverty line. SNAP has some of the most rigorous program integrity standards and systems of any federal program."  (Center for Budget and Policy Priorities)
https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/misguided-trump-administration-rule-would-take-basic-food-assistance-from-working


People do not stay on this program for a life time. A few months to a few years is the usual profile. See this article in the LA Times.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-07-23/trump-food-stamp-cuts

Cutting food stamps is one of Pres. Trump's methods of getting the money he needs to give a 1.5 trillion dollar break to wealthy people and corporations. The administration is willing to literally take food out of people's mouths. Shameful.





Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Read JP Gazette Article by Sandra Storey

MA legislature asked to 

“Lift the Cap on Kids”


"Right now there are about 8,700 children and families in Massachusetts—1,400 in Boston—who are suffering because of an outdated provision in state law based on myth rather than actuality."
Read more...

Tuesday, April 10, 2018


Read this report-from Mass Law Reform Institute
Denying Food and Shaming Children: Unpaid School Meal Policies in Massachusetts

"When a child has no money in his/her meal account and no money in hand to pay, school districts use various practices which are, presumably, intended to shame the parents but that actually humiliate and punish the child. These include: dumping a child’s lunch tray into the trash and instead serving a cheap sandwich in place of the hot meal; prohibiting students from participating in any school related extracurricular activities (sports, field trips, plays); withholding report cards or other documents from the family; and other practices involving children in the pursuit of debt, which may well violate Massachusetts Debt Collection laws. School meal debt—something a child has no control over—becomes a badge of shame that unnecessarily creates a stigma with peers and undermines academic achievement. Meal shaming punishes a child whose family may be facing significant economic challenges and hardships."
Link to full report 
http://www.mlri.org/uploads/48/1f/481f9f9228712df0601b29be77ad90dc/MLRI-School-Meal-Debt-Report-March-2018.pdf