Cuts will take food off the table for 47 million Americans
By Bob Aiken, Special to CNN
updated 8:34 AM EDT, Wed October 30, 2013

(CNN) -- In the last few weeks, the media has been ablaze with news of the government shutdown, the debt limit and health care reform. Missing from most public debate, however, is the cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits that will take place on November 1 and will affect every one of the more than 47 million Americans who depend on the program to help meet their basic nutritional needs.

When the changes are implemented, everyone enrolled in the SNAP program will see their benefits cut. For example, a family of four that qualifies for the maximum monthly benefit will lose $36 a month -- that's a 5% reduction.

While this may not seem like a lot, I speak from experience when I say $36 provides much more than you might think. This past September, I participated in the SNAP challenge.

For a week, I stuck to a budget of about $1.50 per meal, the average SNAP benefit for one person. It was a tough week. I found myself drained and constantly thinking of food.

When the SNAP cuts take effect next week, benefits will average about $1.40 per meal. I can't imagine the strain this will place on struggling families who are counting every penny and trying to stretch their benefits.

Most families do not have enough to make it through the month already -- 90% of SNAP benefits are redeemed by the third week of the month and 58% of food bank clients currently receiving SNAP turn to food banks for help at least six months out of the year.

The upcoming cuts will result in an increased need for food assistance at food pantries and soup kitchens across the nation when many are already stretched meeting sustained high need in the wake of the recession.

At Feeding America, we're doing everything we can to prepare our network of food banks for the increased demand, but charity alone cannot make up for the impending $5 billion loss in SNAP funding. The reduced funding will result in the loss of nearly 1.9 billion meals in the next year. That's more than half of Feeding America's total projected output for 2014.

The cuts this week are significant and will put a strain on millions of families struggling with food insecurity, hitting them right before the holiday season. Adding to this is the fact that Congress is considering much deeper cuts to SNAP benefits and eligibility restrictions that will affect millions of low-income people as part of the farm bill.

In September, the House passed legislation cutting $40 billion in SNAP over the next 10 years, according to a Feeding America analysis. Together with this week's cuts, the pending legislation will result in a loss of nearly 3.4 billion meals for low-income Americans in 2014 alone, according to a Feeding America analysis. These are meals our most vulnerable citizens cannot afford to lose, and food banks and other charities simply cannot fill that gap.

While we cannot stop this week's SNAP cuts, we can prevent further cuts from taking place. Call your member of Congress and tell them not to cut SNAP.

Helping our neighbors in need is a fundamental American value, and fighting hunger is a public-private partnership. We need a strong charitable system and a strong federal anti-hunger safety net. Working together, individuals, charities, business and government can solve hunger. Do your part to make sure no one in America goes hungry.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/30/opinion/a ... Stories%29

This is obviously a load of hogwash Oskar!

Heck, there is a guy posting on another board who has personally SEEN some of these "welfare queens" buying thousands of dollars worth of "groceries" (like champagne and caviar) and then piling them into her new Cadillac and heading off home to her 40 room mansion to laze in front of the pool while the hired help cook up the best steak for lunch.

He's actually SEEN it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, he's "seen" lots of other things as well, but I believe everything he's said.

I've seen it too, Cattleman.
About 15 years ago I had a lady in front of me with two fully loaded shopping carts. Shrimp, meats of all kinds, all the goodies you can imagine. Then she paid with that distinctive looking EBT card.

Of course I don't have a clue how many EBT card users, who actually need that little bit of support to survive, I didn't see in the following 15 years.
I gather from my own experience that there are some who abuse the system, and many others who don't.

Yeah, but it was a Cadillac UFO. They didn't tell you that part.

Well, and that's the issue. Those cards get sold or transferred. People sell them for drugs or get bullied into giving them up, or they get stolen. The woman you saw might have been a predator of some kind.

That's not a reason to cut back on the benefits though. Tighten up security any way you can, but cutting the allowances isn't the answer. It just makes vulnerable people more vulnerable.

I will post my experience with the Food Stamp program later. I did have it all typed out and hit some damn button that deleted the entire thing.

Gotta go do work. Pffffffffft.

I will say for now.........the % of fraud is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of families who really do need the help.

That's been repeatedly proven. Same with welfare.

Ok, so at one point in my life, we needed temporary help and applied for food stamps.
First, I was blown away by a woman who was nattering on to someone she knew in the waiting room about how she scams the system. Something about working cash paying jobs.....probably cleaning and such. She laughed about how much money she made. That made me very angry, but I kept my mouth shut. I was humiliated enough just being there.

At the time, ex was out of work and since he had lost a job in another city we moved back to our home town and were living with my parents who were on SS, and my Dad took many expensive medications. This with two kids in tow.

During the "interview" she asked how many people lived in the house. Then she asked about cars. I said "One 78 Malibu and one 78 Corolla" (this was in the early 90's) She said (with raised eyebrows) "Is that ALL?" It was.
Then she asked if we had any boats, RVs, jet skis etc. At that point, I'd had enough and responded quite sharply "If I had ANY of those things, I'd damn well sell them to buy food!"

We were denied food stamps with no real explanation, which we could have appealed, but the ex found work and I found a charitable program that allowed you to get free food in exchange for volunteer work. It was a life saver, since the ex wasn't getting paid as much as the previous job. In a few months we were back on our feet and able to move into our own place. That's how long we would have wanted or needed the food stamps.

I think there are many, many people who only use food stamps like that.

Sometimes i think the people that spend so much time spouting off about how they "scam the system" in those waiting rooms are people who are just humiliated at the fact that they are there, and they are trying to take some power back in a powerless situation. Which is a big fancy way of saying people say stupid shit to save face when they are stressed.

I'm sure that some people scam the system, but i doubt if fraud makes up much of the cost of foodstamps or welfare. And, let's face it, the cost of foodstamp and welfare programs is NOTHING in comparison to what taxpayer money goes to corporate bailouts and industry assistance and the war machine. Catching welfare frauds that manage to make a hundred dollars a week under the table cash will not affect people's taxes much.