CHICOPEE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – The federal budget under President Donald Trump shows plans to cut over $130 billion worth of funding targeting things like food assistance programs. Congressman Richard Neal told us it’s something everyone should be concerned about in Massachusetts and beyond. “Whether it’s healthcare or nutrition, these are very important staples of American life. The progress we’ve made over decades shouldn’t be reversed. America is a land of great bounty. The idea you’re going to balance the federal government by cutting nutrition is nonsense,” he said.
Meanwhile, Western Mass News spoke with Christina Maxwell, director of programs for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, on this weekend’s episode of ‘Getting Answers’ and she explained, “Those cuts have not gone through yet, so everything is as it has been. We don’t know what the future is going to bring of course, but we’re carrying on.”
However, we wanted to know what would happen if these cuts did in fact go through. Maxwell explained that approximately 194,000 households in western Massachusetts rely on food assistance programs like SNAP benefits. She told Western Mass News that, if the federal government cuts $134 billion in funding, it would mean about $6.4 billion worth of cuts in Massachusetts over 10 years and that would result in a 20 percent cut in daily benefits for SNAP holders.
Maxwell also described the change as potentially devastating and added that the emergency food system is not equipped to make up for that level of drastic cuts in funding.
Tonight at 6 p.m. on ABC40, we have details on how the community can push back against these proposed cuts and hear more from Neal on what his office is doing to prevent these potential cuts from going through.
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