By Kara D. Ryan, Senior Research Analyst, Health Policy Project
Were you one of the millions who saw the book-turned-blockbuster The Hunger Games over the weekend? The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world where most residents routinely live with abject poverty and hunger. Each year, teens are forced to fight in a prolonged televised battle for survival where there can only be one victor—whose home district will be lavished with enough food to feed everyone for the coming year.
While the plot is fantasy, the reality of poverty and inequality exists in this day and age in our own country. It’s undeniable that there are American kids who are suffering in the U.S. today, and it’s taking a toll on their health. Sadly, it seems that decision-makers are willing to play political games with programs and resources that are critical to our children’s well-being.
At this very moment, about one in five families with children don’t have enough money to pay the bills, keep a roof over their heads, and still have enough left over to afford healthy foods at every meal. As a result, nearly 16 million kids and teens are at risk of hunger on any given day, a problem that is even more pervasive among children of color. Nearly one in three Hispanic and Black children, compared to one in seven non-Hispanic White children, live in households where they can’t always be certain that there will be enough to eat. Many families are skipping meals or compromising the quality of their meals in order to make sure everyone has a full belly. That means that Latino kids are at greater risk for nutritional deficits that lead to developmental delays, overweight and obesity, and chronic diseases that follow them into adulthood.
At a time when we should be concentrating on lifting up policy solutions to the child nutrition crisis—including comprehensive approaches that tackle the social and environmental factors to healthy food access—there is reason to be concerned that some of the most important resources for these families are under threat. Just last week, the House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) released a budget that would—among other things—convert the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) to a block grant program, eliminating its ability to serve all who qualify and resulting in reduced eligibility as well as benefit levels. (The Ryan budget bill has already passed the House budget committee by a vote of 19–18.)
This the latest in a series of legislative actions in recent years, brought forward by both sides of the aisle, that would weaken SNAP; during the 2010 reauthorization of child nutrition programs, for example, compromise was brokered through cuts to SNAP. As a result, temporary benefit levels passed in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (which have been found to boost children’s health outcomes) are set to expire next year, meaning that the average family will see their SNAP resources plummet by 10% unless action is taken. That might not sound like much, but with an average benefit level working out to about $4.50 per person per day—for all meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner—that cut will add up quickly over the month for our families. For a program that serves one in six Americans and has proven to lift about four million people out of poverty, nearly half of them children, politicians seem more than comfortable ignoring the needs of a large part of their constituency.
We’ve heard directly from Latino families who tell us how important SNAP is to putting healthy meals on the table for their kids. From Geannette from El Paso, a mother of two who works at a minimum wage job while attending school part-time: “Actually, with my salary, if I didn’t have [SNAP], no, I don’t think I could even buy food…I work very much and I make very little.” At the end of the day, SNAP helps Geannette buy the healthy foods she wants to give her kids, including fresh fruits that are a staple of her daughters’ diets. (For more from Geannette, read her story or watch her video below).
It’s clear that SNAP is part of a comprehensive solution for improving our kids’ nutrition, and we should be focusing our efforts to increase Latinos’ enrollment in the program; formal and informal barriers result in eligible Hispanics’ low participation rate. Instead, our attention will be divided, spent on protecting the program from policy changes that will end up hurting some of the most vulnerable in the community.
To find out if you, a friend, family member, or neighbor is eligible for SNAP, use USDA’s pre-screening tool in English or Spanish. For more information, please visit www.nclr.org/nutrition.