The Mid-Ohio Food Collective Thursday urged U.S. Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno of Ohio to oppose cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the proposed federal funding bill.
At a press conference at the food collective’s Grove City warehouse, Matt Habash, the collective’s president and CEO, said that SNAP is the first line of defense against hunger in America.
“Our families turning to SNAP aren’t doing so by choice, but out of necessity. SNAP dealt with food on the table for nearly 1.5 million Ohioans last month,” He said. “These are our neighbors, and they’re counting on us.”
The current bill has made its way to the Senate after the House passed it in late May. This version would cut SNAP funding for the country by nearly 30% — $300 billion over 10 years.
Ohio is facing a $473 million-a-year cut for the food assistance program.
The budget bill also would change requirements for obtaining access, like requiring seniors to work until age 64 to receive benefits, or changing requirements for parents of children over 7.
Habash said the food collective serves 190,000 meals a day on average, an increase in recent years. He attributes that to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Food banks and pantries carried the country through COVID. Since then, we’ve set a new service record every single year. Last year, hungry Ohioans in our service area visited their local pantry 1.84 billion times. That’s more than 35,000 families every single week. And it’s nearly doubled the amount we served just a few years ago,” he said.
While the food collective is effective, Habash says that they aren’t enough to fill the gap that would be caused by the proposed cuts.
Habash continued, “The food bank has its limits. We can’t do the impossible.”
Habash was joined by officials from several food banks from across the state.
The executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks, Joree Novotny, spoke about the compounding factors that low-income individuals and families are currently facing.
“Ohio families and seniors are straining under the weight of higher prices for food, housing and other basic necessities and charitable and faith-based providers are struggling to keep up.” said Novotny, pausing to take a breath. “The U.S. House of Representatives passed budget reconciliation texts that would permanently, structurally endanger our country’s first line of defense against hunger.”
Officials asked community members to call Husted and Moreno to urge them to change the budget bill, donate to local food banks and the food collective, which is able to provide two and a half meals for every dollar donated, and to volunteer at local food banks.
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