FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202) 776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org
Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to pass the “Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act” (H.R. 2642), known as the farm bill, which addresses agricultural policy issues such as farm subsidies but leaves nutrition policy to be dealt with in separate legislation. The farm bill has historically included both farm and nutrition policy, with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) constituting almost 80 percent of funding in the bill. Given that the House of Representatives has previously proposed deep cuts and other damaging changes to the vital food assistance program that serves millions of Latino families, NCLR (National Council of La Raza) is incredibly concerned that parceling out separate legislation for SNAP will result in the program losing critical funding.
“Latino children make up about two-fifths of all children living with hunger in this nation; reductions in funding for SNAP will have a very direct and damaging impact on the health of our kids and communities,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR. “We should be working toward ending hunger in this nation, not exacerbating the problem. Policies that aim to take food off of the tables of millions of struggling families are misguided and heartless.”
Approximately one in six Americans relies on SNAP, and almost 17 percent of those participants are Latino. The program not only serves as a means of providing food assistance but also helps to keep families from falling into poverty.
“Every dollar counts for struggling families,” added Murguía. “Moving forward, we urge Congress to prioritize the nutrition and health of our children and communities, and to protect critical funding for SNAP.”
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