by Natalie Williams
The United States Government has announced that if the government shut down does not end by the end of the month, on October 27th; SNAP benefits will end. Roughly one in eight Americans are on SNAP; otherwise known as Food Stamps. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides benefits to 41.7 million Americans; who are mostly children, seniors and the disabled.
As this SNAP benefit denial might result in an uptick in Charity Food Bank visits to the point where they can no longer sustain it, actual hunger may result. Here, the personal becomes even more political; as any delay or denial of SNAP benefits will disproportionately affect the Blue [democratic voting] States because of the high Cost of Living in those states. [ NY, CA, MA and HI are notable examples].
This is perceived to be a maneuver by the executive to pressure democrats in Congress to vote for a bill which will dramatically increase the health care insurance costs of many Americans.
The entire food supply chain and economy may be affected by this. With the Thanksgiving Holiday approaching, an eighth of the population will not be looking forward to enjoying a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner. Nor will food stamp recipients have the means to make food purchases starting next week.
As food is necessary for life, this SNAP denial will be life threatening.
More than 3 million people in New York State rely on SNAP.
