Food Stamps – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Zeldin Votes to Hurt Hungry Constituents

David Posnett — Fri, 18 May 2018 23:32:47 +0000

The “Farm Bill” is generally known as the biggest safety net for millions of farmers across the country. But it also includes the Supplemental Nutrition Program — known as SNAP or “food stamps”. Last year, 40 million people used the program, totaling about $70 billion in spending.

Republicans and Trump want strict work requirements for people who receive those benefits, a plan all Democrats reject. That left House leaders searching for conservative votes.

The GOP rebellion Friday came from two groups, fiscal conservatives opposed to the high level of government spending in the farm bill and a group of more than two-dozen representatives who threatened earlier this week to block the farm bill until they were guaranteed a vote on immigration and border security.

The Congressional Black Caucus claimed the work requirements would “ensure that more Americans go hungry,” claiming the GOP changes to SNAP would result in 2 million people losing access to food stamps.

Eve Krief is a Suffolk county activist and she points out that Lee Zeldin should be held accountable for voting for the failed bill. It would have

HURT 15,621 HUNGRY HOUSEHOLDS IN HIS DISTRICT!!
Look at the following table under the heading SNAP (Food Stamps)

15,621 SNAP households
5,740 SNAP Households with children
8,079 SNAP households with elderly
67% SNAP households (2 or more people) who worked in 2015

Source: Fiscalpolicy.org

This legislation was defeated. But we were clearly lucky to have benefited from a rebellion within the Republican ranks. The issue may resurface.

Single mothers with newborn babies, and no income, are at the highest risk!

Lee Zeldin’s inhumane vote is here to stay. Let’s remind him in November.

Trump Wants to Charge Retailers to Accept SNAP Benefits (Food Stamps)

David Posnett — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 17:37:44 +0000

When is the GOP’s cruel assault on the most vulnerable going to end?

From Modern Farmer

By Andrew Amelinckx on June 9, 2017

You’ve probably heard about the White House’s proposed overhaul of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, formerly known as food stamps—the program would see deep cuts if President Donald Trump’s budget goes forward. But you may not be familiar with another proposal that could also affect the 43 million Americans who rely on SNAP, as well as the grocers who accept these benefits from their customers.

Trump wants to charge grocery stores and other retailers a fee for accepting SNAP benefits to the tune of more than $2 billion over 10 years, with businesses from corner stores to Walmart bearing the cost. Currently, retailers don’t pay a fee to get authorized to accept SNAP benefits, but they are required to register with the Department of Agriculture, the agency responsible for overseeing the program.

As outlined in the White House’s Major Savings and Reforms—which makes up the budget plan and also A New Foundation for American Greatness—the fees would be on a sliding scale, and would be charged when a retailer first signs up to participate and again when they renew their application every five years. Small businesses, like convenience stores, would pay somewhere in the range of $250 while large supermarket chains would have to shell out as much as $20,000. It’s unclear what type of fee farmers markets and CSAs—many of which now accept SNAP benefits–would be responsible for under the proposal.

According to The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is responsible for producing the president’s budget plan, the current system “fails to recognize the Federal costs of application processing and oversight of retailers, and the significant portion of a retailer’s revenue that SNAP can represent.”

Also: Check out what Food & Wine has to say: http://www.foodandwine.com/news/trump-charges-stores-for-accepting-food-stamps

Sweet Home Alabama?

David Posnett — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 17:51:15 +0000

Alabama counties cut 85% of their food stamp participants with no work in sight

By Walter Einenkel

Tuesday Jun 06, 2017 · 2:45 PM EDT

Maybe he can find a job at that abandoned building?

While former Governor Robert Bentley was using Alabama taxpayer funds to fly helicopters to find his wallet and nearly getting himself impeached for misusing campaign funds (amongst other things), he was standing out front with his baton in the Republican hypocrite-parade. Since the beginning of the year, Alabama has cut away the “work requirement” exemption that was in place during the economic crash for people receiving food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Since January 1, thousands have been purged and now the remaining counties that still had the exemption have also seen thousands of people going hungry.

During the economic downturn of 2011-2013, several states – including Alabama – waived the SNAP work requirements in response to high unemployment. It was reinstituted for 54 counties on Jan. 1, 2016 and for the remaining 13 on Jan. 1, 2017. As of April 2017, the highest jobless rate among the 13 previously excluded counties was in Wilcox County, which reported a state-high unemployment rate of 11.7 percent, down more than 11 percentage points from the county’s jobless rate for the same month of 2011.

[…]

As of Jan. 1, 2017, there were 13,663 able-bodied adults without dependents receiving food stamps statewide. That number dropped to 7,483 by May 1, 2017. Among the 13 counties, there were 5,538 adults ages 18-50 without dependents receiving food stamps as of Jan. 1, 2017. That number dropped to 831 – a decline of about 85 percent – by May 1, 2017.

The good news is that Alabama is saving a few dollars. The bad news is that this bullshit form of bootstrap-pulling isn’t going to motivate people any more than they already are. Those areas don’t have an abundance of jobs, nor meaningful public transportation for people to get even volunteer work to meet these magic requirements.

Robert Gain volunteers in the kitchen at First Stop, Inc. and said he is trying to meet the requirements.

“Most of the people around here, their food stamps are canceled, and this is the only meal they’re going to get today,” Gain said.

[…]

Gain’s food stamps ran out on April 1. It’s because of changes to the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which limit people to receive three months of benefits within a three-year time frame unless they are working or volunteer training for at least 20 hours a week.

Gain is lucky as there aren’t enough positions, even in the volunteer world, to get the required hours needed. The good news is that Gov. Bentley was hoping to find a nice place for everyone to live.

Gov. Robert Bentley said a plan to borrow $800 million to build four new state prisons will be his most important goal during the 2017 legislative session, which is two weeks away.

You don’t have to wear a tinfoil hat to know that the Republican Party is driven by a racist and classist prison state ideology.