Minnesota Senator Al Franken has signed a letter urging the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction not to cut anti-hunger programs. Senator Franken joins 15 other signers in specifically asking that the committee protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), calling it “a true safety net for America’s lowest income and neediest families.”
The letter, sent to Senator John Kerry, points out that neither President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform nor the Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of Six,” have recommended cuts to SNAP. With 49 million Americans living in food insecure households there has, as the letter goes on to say, “never been a more important time to protect SNAP, the critical anti-hunger program that makes sure all Americans in need can have food on their dinner tables.”
If those alarming statistics aren’t enough, there is an added benefit to SNAP. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that there is a $1.79 return to the economy for every SNAP dollar spent.
A program that helps reduce hunger and contributes to our economy sounds like a win/win to me.
