A group of Central New York faith leaders, farmers and food pantry operators took the rare step Tuesday of speaking out on a political issue, united against a Republican bill that could lead to the biggest cuts in food aid in U.S. history.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., brought the group together in Oswego County, one of the reddest counties in New York where President Donald Trump has enjoyed some of his strongest support in the state.
The group stood in front of the Catholic Charites of Oswego County food pantry in Fulton to warn that local families will go hungry under the GOP plan to cut $300 billion from SNAP, the federal food aid program for low-income Americans.
The cuts were included in the massive bill passed by House Republicans in the middle of the night Thursday to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. The bill now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate.
Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said the bill – if left unchanged – would cut food assistance to at least 20,000 of the 108,000 children, seniors and Central New Yorkers who depend on the aid.
The bill would also expand work requirements for SNAP recipients, exempting only those with a child younger than 7, down from the current exemption for families with children under 18.
In addition, the bill would institute work requirements for people up to the age of 64, an increase from the current limit of 55.
“Last week, in the dark of night, House Republicans passed President Trump’s one big, beautiful bill,” Schumer said. “But let me tell you, when it comes to feeding the hungry, this bill is ugly. One of the most egregious ways that this bill is ugly is that it would rip away $300 billion from hungry kids. Why are they doing this? To pay for tax cuts to billionaires.”
The bill includes an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts – at a cost of about $3.8 trillion – which are due to expire at the end of the year.
Sister Donna McGartland, of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities in Liverpool, warned the cuts to food aid would hit particularly hard in Syracuse, which has one of the nation’s worst child poverty rates.
She also noted that Oswego County is one of the state’s hunger hot spots.
“We see it in our schools,” McGartland said of the need food aid. “We see it in our day care centers. It’s real. What’s going to happen? They’re going to go hungry.”
She added, “Our prayer is that we do call for a moral recognition that this is not an option. We always stand on the side of the poor. We ask you to pray with us, and to pray for the children who are suffering.”
Brother Christopher Fernández, co-director of the food panty and soup kitchen at Assumption Church of Syracuse, said the group decided to speak out Thursday because the potential cuts to federal food aid are “a moral issue.”
Brian Reeves, owner of Reeves Farms in Baldwinsville, sounded a similar note.
“I’m very concerned about the proposed cuts to SNAP, as every farmer should be,” Reeves said. “Feeding people is what we do. And we need to feed everyone in our community.”
Karen Belcher, executive director of the Food Bank of Central New York, said the need for food aid in Central New York remains high, with one in seven residents considered food insecure.
The problem is most acute in rural Oswego County, where more than 20 percent of county residents are food insecure, Belcher said.
By cutting back on federal funding for SNAP, the move by House Republicans “abandons a 50-year national commitment” to provide food aid to Americans no matter what state they live in,” she said.
The GOP bill would require each state to pick up the cost of 5 to 25 percent of the benefits paid out to its residents through SNAP, or the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended the proposed changes on Sunday during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Johnson said state could be forced to pay a higher share based on their payment error rates under the program.
A review last year by the independent Government Accountability Office estimated that improper SNAP payments (either in the wrong amount or payments that should not have been made) totaled about $10.5 billion in 2023, up about 11.7% over the previous year.
Even a small shift of the burden could have big implications for New York.
If 5% of SNAP costs were shifted to New York state under the Republican plan, state taxpayers would have to come up with $3.4 billion between 2026 and 2034 to make up the difference, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan group.
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