The cuts in food stamps benefits are part of the larger package of cuts to programs that were started during the COVID pandemic in 2020. Those programs – including expanded unemployment benefits to include the self-employed and gig workers, expanding those who qualify for Medicaid (health insurance for low income individuals and households), and expanded child tax credits – have all be cut or will be in the months ahead.

Total spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps, will fall by more than $15 billion this fiscal year, which runs from October 2022 to September 2023. At the same time, military spending, including military aid to Ukraine, will rise by $120 billion, or eight times as much, this fiscal year.

Food costs are up by more than 10% as compared to a year ago, straining working people’s budgets. Most economists expect a recession this year, which would slash the incomes of working people. About 40 million people in the United States are what the federal Government calls “food insecure,” and these cuts will just make the problem worse, especially for children and seniors.

While private charities cannot make up for cuts in SNAP food stamp benefits, this cut comes at a time where private charities are also under stress. The Second Harvest Food Bank that serves San José and distributes free food in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties saw the number of people it served double in 2020 with the pandemic. But even though the pandemic illnesses and unemployment have both come down, the rising cost of rent, gasoline, food, and well, just about everything, has made it harder to keep food on the table. The local food bank is still serving 80% more than in 2019 before the pandemic and will be challenged to help the growing number of people in need.

The United States is the world’s largest exporter of food. The U.S. exports more than twice as much food as the next two largest food exporting countries combined. Yet we cannot manage to feed our own people, while spending more and more on the military and war.

#SanJoséCA #lowincomeFamilies #foodStamps

Leaders of Minnesota’s low-income community are furious.

Linden Gawboy of the Welfare Rights Committee states, “This is an insult to those of us who have been fighting at the capitol for basic survival needs for years. Over 70,000 kids live in extreme poverty. Tens of thousands are basically homeless. The last across-the-board welfare grant increase was in 1986, 29 years ago. Dayton and his legislative cronies have been giving handouts to big business for years, but many of us who have nothing can’t get any cash help at all. We say, ‘Give aid to all in need!’”

The Welfare Rights Committee is organizing a call-in week starting August 3 to urge the governor and legislative leadership to convene a special session on giving money to the poorest of the poor in this state.

For more information: Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/1646316468946540/, or visit WelfareRightsMN.com.

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #Minnesota #lowincomeFamilies #walleyeFishing

St Paul, MN – On April 30, members of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) gathered outside the House Chambers of the Minnesota state capitol to protest Governor Mark Dayton’s State of the State address. “It’s been 28 years without a grant increase and Governor Dayton refuses to help children and their families,” said the WRC’s Darnella Wade.

For the State of the State address, the whole legislature, Supreme Court, Secretary of State, Attorney General and former U.S. Vice-president Mondale attend. They all had to pass by the Welfare Rights Committee members holding signs of Governor Dayton’s face that read, “Shame on Dayton for ignoring 70,000 kids in extreme poverty.” They chanted, “70,000 kids! 70,000 kids!” and “The rich got bailed out, we got sold out!”

WRC members also displayed 28 tombstones to represent 28 years without a grant increase for MFIP (the state of Minnesota’s welfare program for poor children and their parents). The tombstones had slogans such as, “R.I.P. 28 years without an increase,” and “Rest in poverty.”

According to the Welfare Rights Committee’s statement: “Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of federal dollars targeted for Minnesota’s welfare have been raided by Minnesota politicians to supplant state spending and pay down the state’s deficits. Because of this theft, only 27% of the federal TANF dollars actually go to the Minnesota families receiving welfare. Meanwhile, MN welfare grants have not seen an increase for 28 years, while the cost of living has more than doubled.

“This year the state had a surplus. The governor and legislators had a chance to raise the welfare grants to help get 70,000 kids out of extreme poverty, but they refused. Instead they gave tax breaks, mostly to corporations and the well-to-do.”

The last to make a ceremonial entrance was Governor Dayton. WRC had a member stationed at the elevator, so he had to walk through the capitol and into the house chamber to the chants of “Dayton, Dayton! Shame on you!”

As the governor started his address, he got loud “boos” from WRC members. Their statement notes, “The governor tried to give a rosy picture of the state, but WRC was there to show that the ‘real state of the state’ is horrible for the poor and working families.”