An op-ed published today in the Philadelphia Inquirer highlights the importance of congressional action in the face of widespread food insecurity in Pennsylvania and around the country. Written by representatives from Public Citizens for Children and Youth, The Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger and Community Legal Services, the opinion piece highlights recent votes in the U.S. House of Representatives to cut essential federal nutrition programs. These include a budget resolution to cut $127 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation's largest anti-hunger program, as well as an appropriations bill that cuts $733 million from the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC), which provides healthy food to pregnant women and young children.
As the piece states, now is an especially crucial time for these programs, as they continue to be threated by the $1 trillion discretionary spending cuts required by the recent debt-ceiling deal. The writers pose the question: "What happens if Congress fails to protect SNAP, WIC, and other nutritional programs? All Americans, hungry or not, will pay the price in the years to come."
