The U.S. Senate has until July 4, a self-imposed deadline, to vote on changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicare and Medicaid.
The changes to SNAP — which provides food access to low-income individuals and families — will shift more costs to states to administer the program and provide benefits.
About 155,000 Nebraskans use SNAP, according to Amanda Fahrer, communications director for the Food Bank of Lincoln. She said the federal funding cuts will push an estimated $30 million in additional costs onto the state.
“Food is that basic, fundamental human need that we all need to be able to go about our daily lives, to be able to thrive,” Fahrer said. “Without access to reliable, consistent nutrition, that impacts children’s ability in the classroom to be able to focus and learn. It impacts adults who are trying to focus in the workplace and contribute to our communities. The effects are profound.”
Fahrer said additional cuts to federal medical programs like Medicaid and Medicare will place more burdens on families and individuals who need help.
“For those neighbors, that is essentially a double whammy, or a double hit, that folks are now having to find ways to meet multiple fundamental needs, not just food, but also food and health care,” Fahrer said.
Tim Williams, government affairs and advocacy officer with Food Bank for the Heartland, shared similar sentiments that cuts to all three programs tend to target the same people.
“There’s a good chunk of the population that could access both of those at the same time,” Williams said. “If we are reducing how they’re able to interact with those programs, it will only manifest in poor health outcomes, poor nutrition choices.”
According to Williams, SNAP provides nine meals for every one meal the food bank can provide. He said the cuts will only put more work on local organizations to fill those needs.
“That burden then falls on us, the Food Bank, but really at our small pantries in rural Nebraska and throughout the Omaha metro area that are already full, that are already seeing reduced amounts of food, that are seeing too many people as it is,” Williams said.
Both Fahrer and Williams said the two food banks that collectively cover the entire state have been speaking with Nebraska’s federal delegation about the cuts and how they could impact those across the state. In the meantime, they are continuing to support those who need help accessing food.
“Even though we are facing these cuts to SNAP, our mission here at the Food Bank and with our pantries does not change and will never change,” Williams said. “We will do everything that we can in order to meet that need and ensure that if someone does need food or needs help, that we will make sure they get connected to the resources that they need.”
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