At the federal level, the recently passed House budget includes a $230 billion cut to SNAP, the biggest in the history of the program. It also adds red tape through onerous work requirements and shifts $500 million in costs to Ohio annually, an amount the state can’t afford. Recently the Senate Parliamentarian ruled against the cost shift to the state so the Senate is seeking deeper cuts to SNAP funding and ways to reduce the number of hungry people who can access this help.
Our local growers are being hit hard, too. At HHI, we believe one of the long term solutions to hunger is to create good jobs around healthy food, especially in areas that are economically disadvantaged. Our community has experienced a renaissance of local food businesses, strengthening our economy and increasing the availability of fresh, healthy food. However, government cuts and the current environment are undoing years of work in our community.
- Ohio CAN, a federally funded program that bought fresh food from small farmers, and distributed it to food banks and schools, has been cancelled. This provided vital revenue to 160 small farmers in central Ohio as well as $10 million in fresh food to schools and pantries.
- Tariffs are wreaking havoc on farmers. The seasonal nature of farming makes it impossible to react to quickly changing markets and demands.
- Eliminating staff at the USDA deprives small farmers of valuable technical assistance. Cuts to weather forecasting staff are one more challenge, especially as farmers wrestle with climate change.
This list just touches a few of the elements of the perfect storm we are facing. And this couldn’t hit us at a worse time. Our food insecurity rate has jumped to 16 %, more than 85,000 of our neighbors in Montgomery County alone. Foodbanks around the state report continuing increase in people turning to them so their family can eat.
Put the massive numbers aside and consider the individuals behind them. That’s a child who dreads summer because she no longer gets food at school. Or parents lying awake at night wondering how they will feed their family in the morning. It’s our elderly neighbor having to choose between buying food or medicine.
The combination of state and federal cuts coming in a time of rising hunger will be devastating for our struggling neighbors. We have to speak up for them! Call Governor DeWine (614 644-4357) and ask him to use his line item veto to protect vulnerable Ohioans. Call Senators Husted (202 224-3353) and Moreno (202 224-2315) and tell them that the richest nation in the world must not abandon our hungry citizens.
Mark Willis is the Community Engagement Director at the Hall Hunger Initiative (www.hallhungerinitiative.org), a nonprofit dedicated to creating a just and sustainable food system in the Miami Valley.