If you rely on food benefits to feed your family, then we need your help! Lawmakers are currently considering drastic changes to the food stamps law that could restrict how you use your benefits. This could impact millions of families and make it harder for the most vulnerable Americans to purchase the food they desperately need.
You can help us. We’ve provided a sample letter below that you can send to your elected members of Congress to encourage them to protect your benefits.
In this article, we’ll review what is being proposed, why it’s a terrible idea and how you can get involved to protect benefits for all low income Americans.
Some lawmakers want to limit food stamps.
America is in the middle of a major budget battle and lawmakers are looking for ways to make cuts. Some lawmakers want to make cuts from benefit programs like SNAP so that they can spend more money elsewhere, and they think that restricting what you can buy is the way to do it.
There are currently two battlefields for this debate: the state of Iowa and the federal government are both considering sweeping changes to the food stamps law.
Iowa is trying to limit SNAP to WIC purchases.
Lawmakers in Iowa want to change SNAP so that it can only be used to purchase certain foods authorized by WIC, a nutrition program aimed at serving pregnant women, infants and children. This would severely limit the types of food you could buy with your SNAP food benefits.
As of 2023, WIC only allows you to purchase the following items:
- Breakfast cereal (including corn flakes, oatmeal, grits and cream of wheat)
- Canned fish
- Cheese
- Eggs
- Formula & baby food
- Fruits and vegetables
- Juice
- Legumes
- Milk
- Peanut Butter
- Tofu
- Whole wheat bread (including bread, buns, rolls, rice, oats, barley, tortillas and macaroni)
- Whole grains
- Yogurt
Obviously, this would be a huge shift from how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program currently works. Right now, SNAP allows you to buy any food item that is meant for human consumption, as long as it is not hot at the time of purchase or specifically authorized by the law (like alcohol, pet food, etc).
The current SNAP guidelines allow you to buy:
- Fruits and vegetables
- Meat, poultry, and fish
- Dairy products
- Breads and cereals
- Snack foods
- Non-alcoholic beverages
- Seeds and produce-bearing plants
Restricting SNAP to only allow WIC-eligible items would be a disaster for the health, safety and nutrition of low income households. They wouldn’t be able to buy meat, butter, flour or other staples under these restrictions.
Some federal lawmakers want to cut food stamps, too.
Every five years, the federal government passes a new Farm Bill. This important piece of legislation is only valid for five years at a time. The current Farm Bill was passed in 2018 and will expire in September of this year.
This bill isn’t just about agriculture. It also governs food stamps and a bunch of other critical nutrition programs, such as the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
Some lawmakers are looking to aggressively cut government spending. About 80% of the Farm Bill’s spending is allocated to nutrition programs like food stamps, the USDA Commodities program, the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and more. This makes these programs a target for lawmakers who want to trim the budget.
It’s no secret that some lawmakers are trying very hard to cut down on SNAP spending. House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger has said that they are “still looking at” cutting SNAP benefits or adding new requirements for the program.
Minnesota Post reports that “fights (are) likely over the proposed changes to food stamp and other USDA programs.”
The Post also points out that over 140 lawmakers signed a ‘Blueprint to Save America’ that proposes some drastic changes to the SNAP program, including:
- completely ending SNAP benefits for childless single adults
- consolidating food stamps into the TANF program
- removing the marriage penalty from benefit calculations
- imposing new work requirements
- requiring ID to use food stamps
- restricting how many replacement cards you can get in a single year
- prohibiting you from using SNAP outside of the state you live in
- requiring all people who receive SNAP to consent to home visits
We all need to defend SNAP food benefits.
The good news is that there are major lobbying groups fighting these changes to the SNAP bill. The National Grocers Association (NGA) is pushing lawmakers to resist restricting SNAP choices and make the online SNAP purchasing pilot permanent.
“The government will need to categorize more than 600,000 products and thousands more each year to create and maintain a food code to determine what foods can be purchased with SNAP. Grocery store cashiers will become the food police, telling parents what they can and cannot feed their families.”
Stephanie Johnson, NGA Vice President
Because the Farm Bill still has not been finalized yet, you can still take action to fight these changes. Use the Find Your Members tool on the official Congress website to locate your elected legislators. When you search your address, the tool will give you the name of your Representatives and Congressmen. Use the blue “contact” link under their name to send them a message. You can also call them at the number listed, if you prefer.
If you need a suggestion about what to say, I have a proposed letter to Congress available that you can copy. Please remember that I am not a lawyer or a social worker or a credentialed person of any kind – I’m just a journalist and a researcher who has been studying low income topics for over a decade. However, you’re welcome to use my template if it makes it easier.
You can download my template letter below. Make sure to change the fields marked in bold font to reflect your name, contact information, and your elected lawmaker’s information. The file is available below both as a PDF and an editable open document type.
The more of us reach out, the more likely we are to create change. Even if you think your voice doesn’t matter, it does. When you add your voice to mine and the other 100,000 people who follow my channel, we can make a difference!
People need to be able to buy meat, milk, herbs, bread, flour, and a lot of the things people also buy ramen noodles and eggs noodles because they are more affordable.
Snap is the only benefit I have to eat I can’t work right now because it’s hard to find a job that will hire and I’m hurt I have a problem with my back and a broken hand.
I want to put a stop to the cut off of snap it’s the only benefits we have to live on for me and my mom.
I also have a gluten intolerance. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I’m not suppose to have any gluten or processed foods.
I do not believe this change should be made. We rely every month on our EBT / Snap benefits. That’s the only way I can afford to feed myself. I hope this is not going to change too the WIC limited food choices.
I am 57 years old and unemployed and the SNAP Program has helped me to maintain food in my refrigerator and food in my stomach. Before the SNAP Program. I could not afford to eat a well-balanced meal. I am so grateful and thankful for that. Please do not cut the SNAP Program and please do not put no restrictions on SNAP Program because you will be hurting people in my age bracket not being able to maintain their health and living a healthy life. If this is passed, I will not be able to eat and others that are in similar situations as mine.
I am disabled I liver cirrhosis of liver ! Debetic ! Ulcers problem with stomach ! I can’t eat certain foods bye they doing this I won’t be able to eat ! Can’t eat fish or tuna ! I am on special food plan that ! Bye u doing this I won’t be able to eat ! God bless all !
This not right a lot people will starve ! And disable people have friends or family go store to get there food ! I can’t eat a lot stuff because problems with stomach and need special diet stuff , I will not be able to eat fish tuna , this just crazy ! They are going to make things worse bye doing this ! And if do this there will be more crime because people hungery can’t feed family ! It will get worse ! Pray to god this does not happen
These people who call EBT an entitlement seem to think that it isn’t a necessity for American citizens who have and are paying taxes.
As a disabled senior American citizen I want them to know that I have worked And paid taxes since I was eight years old. I worked in the fields in Oregon in the summer when school was out, and since I had a social security card (which of course I needed to work) I paid taxes… Granted it probably wasn’t much, as a child, but nonetheless I have been a tax payer almost all of my life.
I live on a small fixed income and I need EBT. Some of the elected lawmakers forget that money that pays their salary, And funds EBT comes from American citizens. Their first priority should be the welfare of the American people most of which have worked hard, and who are now struggling to live a decent life.
I will be contacting all of my states representatives, thank you low income relief for all that you do.
Hi, I can download the letter, but I am unable to open it… I’ve tried several times.
Hi Cg. You may need to install the Google Docs app to open it.
This is not right people that are on disability or people that are low income need this and older people as well don’t change a thing in this program. This program needs to be protected at all cost. Shame on people that want to take it away. We all have to eat.
Please ask those voting on changing EBT to WIC approved list to live eating only WIC approved foods for a mo th! Sure some may have done EBT challenge butter need to doa WIC challenge!
The Snap program has helped me out so much. I was diagnosed with being sensitive to Gluten and I can’t eat gluten or progressed foods. I break out in a rash, and my skin becomes itchy and red. And I have digestive problems and if I eat anything with gluten that is putting my health at risk.
I’m also low income have a disability I have Cerebral Pasly, Seizures since I was an infant and I have a mild mental retardation. I can’t work. I’m a self and peer advocate for people with disabilities like myself.
If I didn’t have the Snap Calfresh it would be even harder to get what I need to make it. I pray ???? and ask that you reconceder what would happen to individuals like myself that need extra help and have to eat healthier for what ever our health issues my be.
Sincerely, Eugenia Jones a self and peer advocate for the disable community
We don’t need to change anything. Unless we add paper products to the EBT
My husband and I are seniors with various health problems. While EBT doesn’t cover us for the whole month, it has greatly helped stretch our budget so we can get the proper nutrition.
I do have to wonder about the why behind these sorts of things.
You make so many valid points concerning this change.
Why stop people from being able to buy seeds and plants so they then grow some of their own food and many cases reach food independence and not need SNAP any longer?
As a former home health care worker I have gone to the store many times for people that could not get out and go on their own.
Not only will I be letting my legislators know, but I am also sharing this with everyone I can, whether they get SNAP or not.
I was diagnosed by with fatty liver disease and pre-diabeties.I believe much more cost effective to keep SNAP Benefits as is so I can access online benefits for bulk food shopping and also make sure my family member eats well as a senior with heart disease. I am close to sixty and disabled and visually impaired. I do not accept social my security other benefits even though work as much as possible in my circumstances. Cutting or restricting SNAP Benefits to low income and elderly and disabled in general is injustice in my opinion.
That would make a lot of people go hungry and not have everything they need
I’m on special diet. If you change the food we can have. I guess I will have to stop eating.