Proposed cuts to federal food assistance programs could be devastating

A Senate version of the bill is considering around $211 billion in SNAP cuts over time. If that passes, food banks could see a major uptick in food insecurity at a time when families and residents already have unprecedented levels of need, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley executive director Leslie Bacho said. 

“SNAP really matters here, and it also matters in cities and rural communities across the U.S.,” she said. “One thing we know is that when SNAP gets cut, we see our lines get longer.” 

When COVID-era additional SNAP benefits were cut as the pandemic waned, the lines at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley instantaneously got longer, Bacho said. 

Even in proportionally wealthy communities like the Bay Area, 675,000 individuals rely on food assistance programs. And in Silicon Valley, 1 in 6 residents uses Second Harvest services. 

Food bank leaders have firsthand experience with the suffering that inadequate access to basic necessities can cause, said Tanis Crosby, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank executive director. 

For the 175,000 Bay Area households now in danger of losing SNAP benefits, Crosby and others are now working to sound the alarm. 

“We are sounding the alarm because this is unacceptable. We are sounding the alarm because hunger is not a personal choice, it is a policy choice, and this choice is unacceptable,” she said. “Right now, our elected representatives are choosing, are proposing, devastating cuts that make no sense.” 

Furthermore, food banks in the Bay Area and nationwide do not have the resources to replace SNAP, Bacho warned. 

“We are committed to serving anyone who needs food. We are committed to showing up every day, but we cannot replace a gutted federal safety net,” she said. “This is not just about hunger, it is also about dignity, and it’s about stability, and it’s about the basic human right to survive in a country that has the means to do better.” 

It’s imperative that SNAP — which also serves as an economic booster to local businesses and grocery stores, food bank leadership noted — be maintained, Alameda County Community Food Bank executive director Regi Young said. He encouraged community members to contact their federal representatives to impress upon them the necessity of the program. 

“It boggles my mind that in the wealthiest country in the world that we would actively dismantle our most successful hunger relief program and take away vital resources for our communities that need it the most in order to support tax cuts for the wealthiest members of our communities,” he said. “To each and every one of us, that is unacceptable.”