Laura Siller, PhD
Recently, both chambers of Congress passed updated budget resolutions. Included in the resolutions is a monumental $1.5 trillion or more reduction in federal spending. These resolutions kick off a process known as budget reconciliation that allows spending bills to be passed with just Republican votes.
The bottom line is if this spending package passes as currently planned, there will be deep cuts to many safety net programs. Of these proposed cuts, $230 billion are from programs under the Agricultural Committee, which includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps), paving the way to take food assistance away from millions of Massachusetts residents. There is simply no way to cut that amount of spending without lowering benefits, limiting eligibility, or both.
SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, “provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being,” according to the USDA's definition.
For Massachusetts, the consequences of these proposed cuts would be severe. There are more than 1 million SNAP recipients in Massachusetts. SNAP brings an estimated $2.6 billion federal dollars into the state each year, supporting not only low-income households but also our food economy (e.g., grocers and farmers). Put more simply, cuts to SNAP would destabilize the food economy and ultimately the Massachusetts economy.
According to research by the Commonwealth Fund, cutting SNAP could cost Massachusetts an estimated 3,800 jobs, many in retail grocery, food distribution, and agriculture. On top of that, state tax revenue would shrink by around $47.3 million over ten years, complicating efforts to fund critical programs like schools, infrastructure, and public safety. Even if you think federal nutrition programs don’t benefit you, they do. We all pay for hunger – one job loss at a time.
Moreover, cuts to SNAP and other federal nutrition programs will directly impact communities already facing significant public health disparities. Included in those communities are children. Do you know that more than 595,000 children in Massachusetts eat school meals every single day?
The school meals program is under attack, too. Proposed changes to the Community Eligibility Provision would strip 469 schools in Massachusetts of the ability to provide free meals funded by the federal government, shifting the financial burden to the state to feed the over 221,000 students enrolled in those schools. Is that what we want? No, we don’t.
Our children deserve more. Our neighbors and communities deserve more. We, as taxpayers, deserve more. We know food insecurity isn't an individual failure; it's a policy choice.
The loss of millions in federal support would reduce food access, eliminate thousands of jobs, and shrink the state’s tax base. The Commonwealth would have much to lose if this spending package were federally approved, and now is the time to fight back.
Will you join us in using our collective power to tell legislatures that we deserve better, our children deserve better, and our low-income families deserve better?
Food is not a luxury. It is a human right.