As Republicans move to cut billions of dollars in funding for food stamps, a new report finds one in six Americans live in a household that cannot afford adequate food. In “Nourishing Change: Fulfilling the Right to Food in the United States,” the International Human Rights Clinic at New York Universitys School of Law reports that of these 50 million people going hungry, nearly 17 million are children. Food insecurity has skyrocketed since the economic downturn, with an additional 14 million people classified as food insecure in 2011 than in 2007. The report comes as Congress is renegotiating the farm bill and proposing serious cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program. Millions of Americans currently rely on the program to feed themselves and their families. The reports co-author, Smita Narula of the International Human Rights Clinic at NYUs School of Law, joins us to discuss her findings and why she is calling on the U.S. government to ensure that all Americans have access to sufficient, nutritious food.
Smita Narula talking:
Of the 50 million people who are food insecure, 17 million are considered as having very low food security. And what this means is that people are regularly reducing the size of their meals, skipping meals altogether, and in some cases going entire days without eating. Our report finds that the key nutrition assistance programs which represent the governments response to food insecurity are failing to address this crisis adequately, and instead of shoring up these programs, Congress is now threatening deep cuts to SNAP, or the Food Stamp Program, which threatens to push millions of Americans into deeper crisis.
Food Stamp Programs are incredibly vital to millions of Americans, and they have tremendous reach, but our report finds that they fall short in three key respects. First, the eligibility requirements for these programs, which are often drawn along income and asset lines, are simply drawn too narrowly, so these programs are not reaching all food insecure households. Second, numerous burdensome certification, renewal and verification processes are deterring applicants from applying altogether. And, finally, the amount of benefits that are provided by these programs are simply insufficient to meet a familys food-related needs.
To give you an example, a family of four entitled to the maximum SNAP benefit can only provide $1.90 per person per meal under those benefits. Thats less than $24 a day to feed an entire family. There are two things that are wrong with that number. One, it doesnt stretch until the end of the month, and people end up lining up at food pantries. And second, its also insufficient to ensure nutritious food, and many people turn to junk food, which is much more cheaper and more readily available in this country.
Take, for example, the story of John, whos a 10-year-old from Michigan. John wishes that he could get a job and bring some income home, so that he doesnt have to see his parents push food off their plates and onto his plate any longer. When he goes to school, his gnawing hunger keeps him from concentrating, and his foodsorry, his grades have plummeted. The family is now on SNAP, and John is on the School Lunch Programs, as a result of which things have improved. But if the House version of the bill goes through, then hell be one of possibly 200,000 children who will no longer be eligible for those school meals.
Then you have the story of someone like Rhonda. Rhonda lostRhondas father lost his job, and her mother has a medical condition. And she had to forego going to college in order to make ends meet in the family. They lost their SNAP benefits because they couldnt keep up with the burdensome paperwork while their mother was in the hospital, and now they have to make choices between paying for food or paying for medical bills. And Rhondas parents ask her and her sister all the time, “Would you rather have the electricity back on, or do you want running water today?” Thats what food insecurity looks like. It looks like hard choices in America.
The world over, freedom from hunger and access to sufficient nutritious food is recognized as a basic fundamental human right. And these values are not foreign to the United States. The U.S. government, going as far back as the FDR era, actually has been promoting freedom from want, and it was that desire during the Great Depression that led to the inclusion of the right to food in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Were calling on America to reclaim those values to ensure that all houses have access to sufficient and nutritious food and that nobody struggles to put food on the table.
It also represents policies that are completely backwards, in our view. Instead of gutting the food safety net, we need to be fortifying it. An investment in food security is an investment in education, its an investment in health, and its an investment in economic recovery. Study after study shows that children who are food insecure struggle to learn at the same rates as their food secure peers. They have lifelong health problems. And ultimately, it undermines their earning potential. The Center for American Progress also notes that hunger is extremely expensive for American society and costs America $167.5 billion a year in medical costs and in running private emergency food programs, among other costs. Conversely, expanding SNAP to actually cover all food insecure households costs only half as much.
And this actually points to something thats become very true of the SNAP program. Not only is it the largest nutrition assistance program in the country, but its also serving as now the largest anti-poverty program in the country. As the social safety net has been shredded over the last several years, the elderly, the disabled and so many others are increasingly relying on SNAP. So, cutting the legs under SNAP threatens to push the elderly and many others into even deeper crisis and poverty.
Sequester already had the effect of pulling funds away from these programs, and we see, just when we speak to individuals right here in New York City, food pantries, that its having a real impact on peoples daily lives. We spoke to many customers lining up right here in New York City at food pantries saying that things are getting worse and worse, that even the slightest difference and changes in benefits can push a family from being able to feed itself into poverty and into struggling to putting food on the table.
Most important recommendation is to strengthen, rather than undermine, the food safety net. We need to fill the plugs in these programs rather than gutting them. And America needs to adopt a national strategy for ensuring the right to food for all Americans. And the time to do that is now, when Americans need it most.
– source democracynow.org