By rssfeeds-admin “The SNAP program, also known as food stamps, has been around for about 50 years,” Champaign County Healthcare Consumers Executive Director Claudia Lennhoff said.
And for that long, SNAP has been funded by the federal government. But now that might change. SNAP provides money for people under certain income thresholds depending on how many people are in your household.
“So that they can purchase nutritious food,” Lennhoff said.
Part of her job is helping people apply for food stamps through SNAP.
“The people who benefit from food stamps or from SNAP are individuals and families who are low income. So that includes everybody from low-income seniors to low income working adults,” Lennhoff said.
President Donald Trump is looking to cut this program by $230 billion. The administration believes this, and other slashes will help save the federal government at least $1.5 trillion and allow them to cut taxes. The plan would be to make states cover the $230 billion.
“The assumption is that the states can pick up the remainder of the expense, and that is a huge assumption,” Lennhoff said.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin partnered with other lawmakers around the country to write an open letter to the public. Durbin said the cuts would drop SNAP money by $500 per year per person. He also said the program supported 200,000 grocery industry jobs and created nearly 45,000 new jobs in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation.
“In very real terms. I think we can expect to see, you know, cuts in the SNAP program and people who will no longer be able to receive those benefits,” Lennhoff said.
Lennhoff said she’s found the program to run efficiently in her time helping people apply for SNAP. She also said the program doesn’t cost much money to run compared to similar government entities.
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