One other item lawmakers are preparing to tackle is the rate at which participants were over and underpaid, which most recently rose from 7.36% in fiscal year 2019 to 11.54% in fiscal year 2022. House Agriculture member Austin Scott, R-Ga., said in a hearing that he is concerned that snack foods can be purchased whereas a rotisserie chicken is out of reach for families on SNAP. Other members are talking about whether the program should buy only healthy foods. "As far as I am concerned, the issue of work requirements is settled for this Congress," she said in a statement. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are looking to expand or limit access to the nation's top food assistance program.įood bank employee LeAnna Gibson loads a car. "Many of the questions that we're seeing in farm bill conversations are some big philosophical questions about who's deserving of assistance and ideological thoughts about what the proper role and size of the federal government should be." "SNAP is our country's most powerful anti-hunger program," said Josh Protas, vice president of public policy for the organization MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. Although food stamps are funded through the regular budget process, the farm bill helps make the rules for how the programs will work and who qualifies. The bill comprises 12 titles that, blended together, make up a measure known as the biggest safety net for American farmers.īut the largest portion of the bill is what is called the "nutrition title." It is the section that makes up about 80% of the bill's spending and helps to manage nutrition assistance programs, such as food stamps. The once-every-five-year piece of legislation is a hodgepodge of policies. "So it really reinforces that idea that SNAP is meant to be supplemental - that is not meant to be someone's entire food budget, which is why folks are still stopping in here."īoxes of food ready to go at the Urban Ministries of Wake County's food bank. "What they're seeing is that there's an increase in folks who are saying, 'Yes, I do receive SNAP,' but their distribution numbers here are staying about the same," said Emily Kraft, the director of community outreach and support services at the Foodbank, an organization in North Carolina. Without expanded benefits, food bank participation has gone back up.Īs folks get their boxes of food, they are asked if they are already participating in SNAP, as a way to locally gauge how many people are on the assistance and still need the food bank's help. Those expansions happened during the pandemic and advocates against hunger credit them with keeping hunger insecurity down. Urban Ministries, like many food banks across the country, has seen an increase in customers this year after federal expansions to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ended. And because it is a food bank, customers don't pay. Food bank employees and volunteers line shopping carts with boxes of food. Residents from nearby neighborhoods travel into the city for their weekly groceries.įruits and vegetables are in bins and canned goods are ready to be bagged. Patrons of the Urban Ministries food bank line up in their cars outside the door, waiting to be among the first inside. Jerry Leslie (left) and Clarence Winn, program manager (right), wheel shopping carts full of food to the line of waiting cars for the morning rush at the Urban Ministries of Wake County's food bank.
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