Food Assistance
Cuts in House Leadership SNAP Proposal Would Affect Millions of Low-Income Americans
The House has passed the Republican leadership’s proposal to cut SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the food stamp program) by at least $39 billion over ten years. This is almost double the cut in the House Agriculture Committee farm bill and about ten times the SNAP cut in the Senate-passed farm bill.
The House SNAP bill is harsh. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates it would deny SNAP to approximately 3.8 million low-income people in 2014 and to an average of nearly 3 million people each year over the coming decade. Those who would be thrown off the program include some of the nation’s most destitute adults, as well as many low-income children, seniors, and families that work for low wages. Read more
Related:
- Greenstein: House SNAP Bill Would Cut Food Assistance to Millions of Poor Americans
- Robert Greenstein Commentary: Portraying Severe SNAP Benefit Cuts As a Mere Work Requirement
- Statement: Stacy Dean, Vice President, Food Assistance Policy, on New USDA Report on “Food Insecurity”
- Infographic: House SNAP Provision Would End Food Assistance To Needy Childless Unemployed Adults
- SNAP Benefits Will Be Cut for All Participants In November 2013
- State-by-State Impact of Proposed SNAP Cuts
- Round-Up: Everything You Need to Know About SNAP
Community Eligibility: Making High-Poverty Schools Hunger Free
"Community eligibility”is a powerful new tool that allows schools in high-poverty areas to offer nutritious meals through the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs to all students at no charge. More than 2,200 high-poverty schools serving nearly 1 million children in seven states —one in ten children across these states —operated under community eligibility during the 2012-2013 school year.
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Topics
Basics
SNAP, the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helps roughly 35 million low-income Americans to afford a nutritionally adequate diet. WIC — short for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — provides nutritious foods, information on healthy eating, and health care referrals to about 8 million low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children under five. The School Lunch and School Breakfast programs provide free and reduced-price meals that meet federal nutritional standards to over 22 million school children from low-income families.
Policy Basics:
- Introduction to SNAP
Featured Experts
The Center designs and promotes polices to make the Food Stamp Program more adequate to help recipients afford an adequate diet, more accessible to eligible families and individuals, and easier for states to administer. We also help states design their own food stamp programs for persons ineligible for the federal program. Our work on the WIC program includes ensuring that sufficient federal funds are provided to serve all eligible applicants and on helping states contain WIC costs. Our work on child nutrition programs focuses on helping states and school districts implement recent changes in how they determine a child's eligibility for free or reduced-priced school meals.
New
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Community Eligibility Contributing to More Low-Income Children Eating Healthy School Meals
October 1, 2013
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Community Eligibility: Making High-Poverty Schools Hunger Free
October 1, 2013
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Census Data Show Poverty and Inequality Remained High in 2012 and Median Income Was Stagnant, But Fewer Americans Were Uninsured
September 20, 2013
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Statement of Robert Greenstein on the Passage of the House Republican Leadership's Harsh SNAP Bill That Would Cut Food Assistance to Millions of Poor Americans
September 19, 2013
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Statement of Robert Greenstein on the Census Bureau's 2012 Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance Data
September 17, 2013
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