Right now, families in our community are struggling. Our Giving Tuesday campaign is live – every dollar you give (now through December 2nd) goes straight to local food banks, and CCJ will match your donation! The sooner you give, the faster we can get it in the hands of those on the frontlines of hunger in Washington and Greene counties. Read on to learn more about this immediate issue impacting our neighbors, about CCJ’s Giving Tuesday campaign, and to see how you can help make an immediate difference.
What’s happened with SNAP and the government shutdown?
Two million people in Pennsylvania are recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)–that’s 1 in 8 people, the majority of whom are children and seniors. This November, all two million of these individuals temporarily lost access to SNAP benefits due to the government shutdown.
In Washington and Greene counties alone, that’s over 100,000 households at further risk of food insecurity and financial hardship due to these delays.
The Trump administration’s refusal to intervene with contingency funds for SNAP during the shutdown and the chaotic exchanges between the federal government, the courts, and the states resulted in partial SNAP payments for some recipients in certain states early in the month. At the time we’re publishing this blog, the federal government has reopened. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Pennsylvanians should now have access to their SNAP benefits for November. This is a step in the right direction, but the pause in benefits has set back low-income families.
What is SNAP?
According to the USDA website, “SNAP [formerly “food stamps”] provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being.” Each month in Pennsylvania, the state distributes funds to Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards that qualifying households can use exclusively for the purchase of groceries. This critical resource helps to sustain families living with food insecurity. Withdrawing this resource from families, or even delaying payments, can have serious impacts on the stability of low-income families.
Who uses SNAP?
In our shared cultural imagination, words like “lazy,” “cheat,” “handouts,” “entitled,” and “irresponsible” come to mind when we imagine who uses SNAP, not to mention racial and class-based stereotypes. The image of the “Welfare Queen,” popularized by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, continues to influence how many Americans perceive individuals who use state benefits.
Despite these harmful myths, statistics about households that receive SNAP benefits tell a different story. In its latest report on U.S. households that receive SNAP, the USDA found that 4 in 5 SNAP households included either a child, a senior, or a non-elderly individual with a disability. Overwhelmingly, these households live in poverty and likely do not receive the entirety of their monthly grocery budgets from their SNAP benefits alone.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that many adult workers in vital but low-paying jobs with unpredictable hours and limited benefits use SNAP to supplement their income and help them through seasons of unemployment. These individuals likely work in service, professional, transportation, administrative support, or sales occupations.
Systemic economic and social inequalities contribute to the disproportionate number of Black Americans on SNAP, not characteristics of “laziness” or other harmful racist stereotypes.
My experiences with SNAP
SNAP supports individuals and families living in poverty as well as those living through moments of crisis and transition. I can speak to this from experience.
When my child was born and I couldn’t afford childcare, SNAP allowed me to feed us while I stayed home with my child. When she and I were forced to leave a dangerous living situation when my child was only 16 months-old, SNAP took care of meals so that I could focus on our immediate safety. When I returned to graduate school and transitioned back into the workforce, SNAP allowed me to feed us on a single, sometimes part-time income. While living through years of painful chronic illness that left me disabled, SNAP boosted my grocery budget so I could buy more nutritious foods.
SNAP allowed me to find stability during periods of tumultuous family and economic circumstances. In part thanks to this critical resource, I was able to keep my family fed while working for safety, security, and a better future for myself and my child. Unpredictable and unnecessary pauses in SNAP deprive millions of people of consistent access to opportunities to survive and flourish.
What can we do to help people in our community impacted by the recent pause on SNAP?
People in our community are struggling to feed themselves and their families right now because of the chaotic and unnecessary delays in SNAP benefits this month. We refuse to stand by and watch this happen without taking action.
At CCJ, fighting for our communities has always meant standing up for the right to live safe, healthy, and full lives—usually by protecting our air, water, and land from harm—but the situation our neighbors are facing right now demands that we show up in a different way.
This Giving Tuesday, we’re supporting local organizations on the frontlines because justice isn’t just about clean water or fair permitting; it’s also about who gets to eat. You can’t build a safe or healthy future if you can’t meet your basic needs, and far too many of our neighbors are struggling to do that.
That’s why this Giving Tuesday, CCJ is standing in solidarity with two organizations that feed our communities:
- Food Helpers, home of the Greater Washington County Food Bank
- Corner Cupboard Food Bank serving Greene County.
Our goal is to raise $5,000 through December 2nd to benefit these two vital food banks directly. CCJ will match every dollar raised up to $5,000! Your gift has double the impact in feeding families and strengthening community resilience.
The kind of community I want to live in is one where every child, every elder, every mother, every person living with disability, everyone is fed and nourished. If you share this dream, will you act with us today to fight hunger in our communities?
If you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity, consider our list of food resources in Washington and Greene for assistance.
Click here to donate now to our Giving Tuesday campaign or to learn how you can contribute in other ways. Thank you for being a part of our community.