At recent Come to the Table conferences, the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP) at farmers markets was a major topic of conversation. Many of you expressed that in a down economy, SNAP benefits are crucial to keeping families from going hungry. 47 million Americans receive these benefits, though many report running out before the end of the month.
Although SNAP benefits are not the profound systemic solution to hunger and poverty that many of us are working for, we have heard from you the effects that these cuts will have on continuing cycles of poverty and food insecurity.
If this is an issue that concerns you, please consider voicing your opinion with your elected officials.
Visits and personal letters are the most effective means of communicating with your representative. Talk to your clergy and community members and urge them to do the same. This is the quickest, most personal to get your message heard.
If you are interested in writing a letter, but don’t know where to start, here’s a link to a form letter from 2013 that you can use to get started: https://www.rafiusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/CTTT-Sample-Letter-to-Representative.docx (MS Word doc)
To find out who your representative to the U.S. House is, click here.