The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, drew strong praise, and even an emotional defense during testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee last week.
SNAP works and should not be scaled back in the next farm bill, a panel of witnesses told the Senate Ag Committee—a poignant message as the House GOP continues efforts to find SNAP savings, after a failed push to make big cuts in the 2014 farm bill.
Diane Schanzenbach teaches at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research.
80-percent of recipients, children, the disabled, elderly or working adults. She says SNAP has boosted recipient employment and the overall economy.
She says block granting or capping the program would undermine that effect, noting the program also provides healthier foods and sharply boosts a child’s chance of graduating high school. But perhaps the most moving testimony came from Tulsa, Oklahoma resident Bryan Parker, who lost his job, his car and his home a few years ago…and barely had enough money to eat.
And Parker did get back on his feet when he says someone decided to give him “a second chance” at his local food bank’s culinary trade program.
Parker says if it wasn’t for SNAP, he’d probably be homeless.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.