Congress Must Act Now to Prevent a Hunger Crisis
SNAP, the lifeline supporting more than 1.9 million Pennsylvanians, is being paused in Pennsylvania. If Congress fails to act, low-income households will not receive November SNAP payments.
Congress is recklessly treating our most essential food and healthcare programs as political leverage – all the while, dehumanizing our undocumented neighbors – and denying our most vulnerable people from critical assistance.
Every day, our team helps people apply for SNAP — the program that keeps food on the table for millions of families across the nation. Delaying SNAP payments is a devastating blow to families already stretched thin.
It also means grocery stores, corner stores, and farmers will lose critical revenue, especially in communities where every dollar counts. By enabling local families to purchase $354 million of groceries from local businesses each month, SNAP supports more than 100,000 food retailers in PA – including more than 200 farmers markets and farm stands.
Both Republican and Democratic officials have blamed each other for this crisis – using food assistance as a bargaining chip in a deeply flawed political debate. This moment demands moral clarity. Pitting food and healthcare needs against each other, while dehumanizing our undocumented neighbors, is reckless and inhumane.
Congress must stop treating essential programs like SNAP as political leverage. If the extended premium tax credits for the Affordable Care Act are not renewed, half a million Pennsylvanians will be forced to choose between food and medical care — all while false claims are made about who qualifies for care. The truth is: the only Medical Assistance available to undocumented immigrants is for emergency life-saving treatment, and only if they meet strict income limits.
Congress has the power and the moral responsibility to stop this manufactured crisis. It is unacceptable, and jeopardizes more than 160,000 of our neighbors in Allegheny County, nearly 2 million fellow Pennsylvanians, and over 40 million Americans access to food.
This is not just a matter of policy, it’s a matter of basic human dignity and well-being.
We are calling on every member of Congress to reopen the federal government, to ensure uninterrupted benefits, and to work towards policies that ensure that no one goes hungry, and that no one is left behind.
Statement attributed to Heather Seiders, Interim Executive Director at Just Harvest.
