Why we need SNAP, food stamps: They help people and society

That’s the case with the latest Department of Agriculture cuts, which slashed over $1 billion in Biden-era federal funding that helped schools and food banks purchase food directly from local farmers.

And that’s not the end of the discussion, as Congress considers agriculture cuts of a whopping $230 billion or more, primarily from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

But food insecurity is a growing threat both locally and nationally. And as President Donald Trump continues proposing new tariffs, food prices are expected to rise even more.

Until lawmakers can get a grip on the stagnant wages and inflated living costs that have driven hunger in our country, they need to preserve the programs that prevent this problem from becoming insurmountable.

Who benefits from SNAP, other food programs?

In short: we all do.

We’ve seen what can happen when good policies are in place. COVID-era protections such as expanded SNAP benefits, guaranteed free breakfasts and lunches for all school-aged kids in the country, and the Child Tax Credit all made demand at food pantries “plummet,” Feeding America President and CEO Linda Nageotte said during a recent Akron Roundtable presentation. Rates of childhood poverty were temporarily cut in half.

We’ve also seen what happened when these protections were rolled back. Without these policies in place, and with inflation to boot, food insecurity — when people can’t access the food they need to live their fullest lives — has reached the highest levels it’s been since the Great Recession.

More than 125,000 people are now experiencing food insecurity in Summit and Stark counties, according to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s website.

Nageotte said more than 35% of people in the U.S. who experience food insecurity make too much money to qualify for the SNAP threshold — a huge jump from 5% three decades ago. 

That number is estimated to be a whopping 57% of people in our local food bank’s service area, according to recent Map the Meal Gap data.

That means more than half of the people who experience hunger in Summit, Stark and surrounding counties are working but not making enough money to put food on the table.

Other significant populations who experience food insecurity are seniors and children. The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank says they make up an average of about half the people served in their pantry network.

These are the people experiencing food insecurity at staggering rates: Those who either cannot or should not be working, or people who are pulling their weight in society but are still left to choose between paying bills or putting food on the table.

SNAP and other food programs are not handouts. They’re necessary support systems for some of our country’s most vulnerable populations.

Food programs tackle more than one problem

In fact, these programs contribute to the economy. Studies show that for every $1 of SNAP benefits spent in a local grocery store, an estimated $1.52 is generated for the local economy.

And yes, it’s true that supplemental food programs such as SNAP do allow recipients to get soft drinks and other processed foods. This is often a result of those foods being cheaper and more accessible.

What is also true is that the programs recently cut from the USDA make accessing fresh, whole foods even more challenging. 

And that’s not to mention the effect this could have on our astonishing food waste problem in the U.S., where nearly 40% of food is spoiled or thrown out, ending up in a landfill. Connecting farms with local buyers was helping to alleviate this problem, as part of it is caused by agricultural overproduction or simply the production of so-called “ugly” produce.

Can we solve the problems of food insecurity and food waste together?

Roughly 90 million pounds of food produced currently goes uneaten or unsold each year.

It’s also been found that restricting the use of food stamps to “healthy” foods would only increase the complexity and cost of the program without any evidence that it would improve diets or public health.

Supplemental food programs are a Band-Aid to larger, more complicated problems. But they’re lifesaving Band-Aids that, until affordability is addressed, may cause people’s finances and livelihoods to hemorrhage. 

Let’s be clear: No one in America should go hungry. That includes people working full time, children and older Americans who worked their entire lives.

Wages need to increase, or costs of living need to come down. But until politicians can agree on how to best accomplish that, supplemental food programs are the next-best solution that don’t just benefit recipients, but society as a whole. 

This piece was written by Akron Beacon Journal Opinion and Community Engagement Editor Theresa Bennett on behalf of the editorial board of the Beacon Journal. Editorials are fact-based assessments of issues of importance to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff members, who strive for neutrality in their reporting.