Food aid cuts would hurt region

By Adele LaTourette

It's difficult to fathom that a state as wealthy as New Jersey requires federal aid to help many of its families meet one of life's most basic needs: food. But a combination of low wages, a high cost of living, and nearly 10 percent unemployment - the highest rate in more than three decades - makes social safety nets such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program crucial in the Garden State.

Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP continues to be one of the state's and the country's most important means of ensuring that people - many of them children and senior citizens - have access to nutritious food. But versions of the farm bill proposed in Congress this summer would cut the program, taking food away from the poorest and most vulnerable among us. An estimated 500,000 households across the country could lose $90 a month in SNAP benefits under a Senate plan, and the House has proposed reductions that would be even more severe.

The proposals come at a time when the number of New Jerseyans who rely on SNAP is rising. More than 824,000 residents were using the program as of May, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the most recent figures available from the Food Research and Action Center, which monitors hunger and food insecurity throughout the country. New Jersey saw the fourth highest rate of increase in SNAP participation in the nation during that period.

More than 100,000 of New Jersey's SNAP beneficiaries are senior citizens. Moreover, only 60 percent of those who are eligible for benefits in New Jersey actually participate in SNAP, according to research by the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition.

As summer winds down, members of the state's congressional delegation are here in their districts until next week. Now is a great time to let them know that cutting SNAP in the name of fiscal belt-tightening would be not only shortsighted, but dangerous.

SNAP offers people from a wide range of backgrounds access to something we all need: a reliable source of nutritious food. Weakening it would lead only to more hunger and food insecurity, worse health and educational results, and higher health-care costs.

Besides hurting people, cutting SNAP would also have significant negative consequences for the economy. Research by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service shows that SNAP helps lift struggling people out of poverty. In 2010 alone, some 3.9 million Americans, including 1.7 million children and 280,000 senior citizens, were lifted above the poverty line because of the program. The USDA has found that $5 worth of SNAP benefits generates nearly twice as much in economic activity.

Often, those who look to slash funding for SNAP raise false allegations that the system is riddled with fraud. But study after study shows this is not true. In fact, according to the USDA, more than 99 percent of SNAP beneficiaries are eligible for the program, and more than 96 percent receive the correct benefit amount.

In August, Kevin Concannon, the USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services, announced plans to further crack down on any misuse of SNAP. They include tougher financial sanctions for retailers who defraud the system and new requirements to ensure that beneficiaries are eligible.

Our representatives should support New Jersey's most vulnerable by supporting a farm bill that doesn't cut or cap SNAP, preserving funding for this critical safety net. Let's keep food on the table for New Jerseyans by taking cuts off the table in Washington.