Saturday, February 09, 2019

TAKE ACTION: Submit a comment to oppose the food stamp rule Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis

Alfred,
In December, the Trump administration plotted to gut SNAP, the food assistance program more than 40 million Americans rely on to feed themselves.
This attack on the poor would impose oppressive work requirements that will have a devastating impact on our nation’s most vulnerable. These requirements will perpetuate the false narrative that poverty is the fault of the poor.
There are millions of poor people relying on food assistance to meet their basic needs every single day. Will you take action, Alfred, and submit a comment against this rule?
SUBMIT COMMENT
We know this work requirement rule doesn’t work.
In 2018, West Virginia—a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country—passed a similar rule.
Amy Jo Hutchinson from the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign says that in just one county in her state more than 800 people are due to lose their benefits.
“They don't want you to know about the 23-year-old with autism who no longer receives SNAP,” Amy Jo says.  “They don’t want you to know about the 18-year-old who recently aged out of the foster care system and has to find affordable housing, a job and food. They don't want you to know about the dad who can no longer use SNAP because of the fact he lives 10 miles out of town and has no access to transportation, which means he has limited access to employment and volunteer opportunities.”
This rule will drive 755,000 poor folks deeper into poverty across the country over the next three years. It's a cruel and cynical attempt to chip away at our social safety net by defining who is and who isn’t suffering in our nation.
“We eat or we die,” says Amy Jo, “and yet this administration continues to commit acts of violence against society's most vulnerable citizens.”
This proposed rule is policy violence, plain and simple.
Fight poverty, not the poor!
Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II and Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis
President of Repairers of the Breach & Director of the Kairos Center
Co-Chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
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