While America likes to think of itself as the land of plenty, at least 13% of people face a shortage of food each day.
Children, elderly residents, people with disabilities, veterans and people who work hard but can’t stay keep up with cost-of-living increases represent the largest part of that number. They are people in cities and rural areas, people of all ages and ethnicities, people who live miles away from sources of nutritious food or who experience unexpected events like the tornado that ripped through 51şÚÁĎ on May 16.
It could be any of us.
The good news is that our local food bank network has stood strong over the past few years as we have been repeatedly tested. Operation Food Search serves 200,000 low-income people each month in Missouri and Illinois. Food banks like ours are a part of a broad safety net our country built to keep families healthy and thriving.
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The bad news is that, even if we dramatically increased our programs and services, we wouldn’t come close to meeting the need that will arise in our community if Congress’ proposed cuts to federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) take effect.
Right now, Congress is inching toward enacting the largest cut to SNAP benefits in history — nearly 30% — as part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” These cuts would effectively gut the program and shift a large portion of the expense to the states.
Analysis conducted by George Washington University places Missouri in the Top 10 states with deepest estimated relative reductions in federal SNAP funding, projecting that we will lose $630 million. Because of balanced-budget requirements, Missouri will be forced to consider whether to raise taxes, reduce provider reimbursement rates, or drop out of SNAP altogether.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 150,000 Missourians will lose some or all their SNAP benefits if the bill passes. That is enough people to fill every seat in Busch Stadium three times. In Illinois, 472,000 could lose SNAP benefits.
The consequences of cutting this program are profound. Children who come to school hungry have less focus, more behavioral problems, and lower grades. Adults who cannot access nutritious food have decreased productivity and more costly health problems. The ripple effect will be felt throughout the economy when people have to dramatically shift their spending to accommodate food prices.
During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, a task force on food assistance stated the symptoms of hunger were not just experienced by a person with an empty belly; they were symptoms of a larger societal problem.
The bill is currently in the House, where representatives from Missouri and Illinois have the ability to preserve the safety net that serves us all. Urge your representative (at ) to vote no on cutting SNAP benefits.
