Take Action to stop cuts to SNAP (Food Stamps)
TAKE ACTION!
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP,” also known as “Food Stamps”) helps over a million Tennesseans purchase food for their families each month. SNAP is the nation’s number one “safety net” program for families facing food insecurity.
We need YOU to contact your Member of Congress about proposed cuts to SNAP.
Here are the facts:
• While the unemployment rate in Tennessee and across the country has hovered around 10%, record numbers of people have turned to SNAP for the first time.
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 provided extra support for SNAP recipients by boosting SNAP allotments – adding food to Tennessee tables and over $100 million to Tennessee’s economy each month.
• The FMAP (Medicaid)/jobs bill recently passed reduced SNAP benefits by $11.9 billion and ends the Economic Recovery Act’s (ARRA) SNAP monthly benefits increase in April 2014 rather than in 2018 as currently projected.
• On top of the SNAP cut in the FMAP bill, the Senate also passed its version of Child Nutrition Reauthorization (S. 3307), which further reduces SNAP benefits, to generate $2.2 billion to pay for this bill. It does this by moving the SNAP benefits increase termination date forward to November 2013.
We need to tell Congress that funding any program priorities – no matter how meritorious – by cutting SNAP benefits is unacceptable.
The House Child Nutrition bill, H.R. 5504, must pass without using SNAP benefits as a “pay for.” H.R. 5504 provides critical support for low-income children by improving their access to the nutritious food they need – whether in school, in out-of-school time programs, or in child care – while also improving the nutritional quality of those meals. Passing H.R. 5504 this year will ensure significant movement towards the goals of ending child hunger by 2015 and dramatically reducing childhood obesity. While passage of this bill is a top priority for the anti-hunger community, it is unacceptable to finance the bill through cuts to SNAP benefits.
How Can You Take Action?
1. Schedule Site Visits and District Appointments. Members of Congress are home – summer recess extends till September 13th – and Members are anxious to meet with constituent groups, especially in an election year. Scheduling a site visit at a school, agency or out-of-school time program is a great way for Members to see the great activities that include the nutrition programs. Or schedule a time to meet with your Member in person or through a “community conference call.”
2. Paper Plate Campaign. Use FRAC’s food hardship data to highlight the need in your community (congressional district) for a strong child nutrition bill that doesn’t cut SNAP benefits. While members are home, you can deliver or mail the plates to the district office closest to you. This is a great opportunity for a meeting or a media event. Can’t get to an office? Decorate a plate and take a picture of it. You can post the picture online and send it to your Member’s office.
3. Keep Those Calls Coming. Call your House Member and the White House during the summer recess. Call toll-free, 1-877-425-4810, to connect to your Representative. The number at the White House switchboard is 202-456-1414. Urge your Representative and President Obama to pass H.R. 5504 without cutting SNAP benefits
4. Use Facebook? Update your status with this message: “Wants you to call your Members and ask them to pass HR 5504 without cutting SNAP benefits.”
5. Keep Circulating the Sign-on Letter Opposing SNAP Benefit Cuts. More than 1,600 national, state, and community-based organizations have joined the letter opposing cuts to SNAP benefits. If you haven’t signed on yet, click here to do so.Make sure your colleagues and networks are on the letter as well.
6. Most papers have carried a story about the FMAP/jobs bill. You can use this as a hook to send a letter to the editor and convey the Child Nutrition Reauthorization message that Congress shouldn’t make the SNAP cuts even worse.
7. Give a reporter a call. If you have a regular contact, remind them of the child nutrition bill. Tell them that the Senate bill contains another cut to SNAP – it’s a child nutrition bill that makes children hungrier. If you want to expand your media list, look for local reporters that are writing about the FMAP/jobs bill. Tell them that they might be interested to hear that there is another cut on the table.
8. Send out a press release about the sign-on letter with 1600 groups opposing the SNAP cuts and highlight the importance of passing the House Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill.
9. Thank your Representative for being one of the 106 Representatives who joined the congressional sign-on letter to Speaker Pelosi that opposes SNAP and supports passage of H.R. 5504 without the SNAP cuts. Find the list of who signed here. You can post your thanks on Facebook or send it via Twitter. And, as you talk with reporters, don’t forget to tell them that your Representative is on the letter.
