{"id":46432,"date":"2024-05-03T10:17:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T17:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cafoodbanks.org\/?p=46432"},"modified":"2024-05-03T13:30:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T20:30:59","slug":"chairs-thompson-stabenow-introduce-farm-bill-frameworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cafoodbanks.org\/es\/blog\/chairs-thompson-stabenow-introduce-farm-bill-frameworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairs Thompson & Stabenow Introduce Farm Bill Frameworks"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAFB and GRACE \/ End Child Poverty Urge California Members to reject cuts and Instead Strengthen SNAP<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This week, House and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairs Rep. Thompson and Sen. Stabenow released starkly different frameworks outlining their vision for the next Farm Bill. While Sen. Stabenow\u2019s plan<\/a> lays out a promising plan to protect and strengthen our country\u2019s most important anti-hunger program \u2014 SNAP, or CalFresh in California \u2014 Rep. Thompson\u2019s plan proposes deep, shortsighted, and harmful cuts to SNAP that will worsen hunger for the more than 5 million Californians who rely on the program today<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, Chair Thompson\u2019s proposal<\/a> includes forcing cost neutral reevaluations which will prevent the USDA from being able to make much needed periodic updates to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), which is the basis for SNAP and other nutrition programs like The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and Summer EBT. In no uncertain terms, this would cut SNAP by about $30 billion over the next decade<\/a> by restricting future updates to only count for inflation, ignoring science-based changes to dietary guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungry Californians would be harmed the most:<\/a> Approximately $3.6 billion, or 12% of the $30 billion cut to SNAP would be taken from the 5 million Californians who spend SNAP benefits at 23,874 authorized EBT retailers across our state. This represents a loss of as much as $6.46 billion in total economic activity, hurting farmers, farmworkers, truckers, grocers, and others across our critical food sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after the recent TFP reevaluation, SNAP benefits still only average $6 per person per day<\/strong> \u2014 barely more than a cup of coffee, and still fall short of the cost of low-income meals in 98% of California counties<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forcing cost neutral Thrifty Food Plan reevaluations is not only a SNAP cut but will also impact other critical nutrition programs like the TEFAP and Summer EBT. These simultaneous cuts will hamper the ability of food banks to serve their communities, and will increase hunger for children during summer months when school is out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In sharp contrast to Chair Thompson\u2019s proposal, Chair Stabenow lays out a forward-looking framework that builds on several of SNAP\u2019s strengths to prevent hunger, fundamentally by preserving future Thrifty Food Plan re-evaluations, in addition to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n