As the festival of Thanksgiving approached, hundreds of Presbyterians, including our denominational leaders Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons, Moderator Neal Presa, and Executive Director Linda Valentine, were just concluding a week of doing the SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge. While living on a food stamp budget for just a week cannot come close to the struggles encountered by low-income families week after week and month after month, it does offer those who take the Challenge with a new perspective and greater understanding, especially in the the context of a national holiday devoted to thankfulness.
As part of the Food Stamp Challenge, Presbyterians engaged in all sorts of activities, from the Challenge itself, to anti-hunger education in church, to contacting their Members of Congress.
As part of their challenge, our leaders send the following letter to Congress. In it, they urge Congress to refrain from cutting SNAP/Food Stamp benefits, which are already too low for many families, and instead to invest in a “comprehensive Farm Bill that ensures access to food for hungry people, provides an ample safety net targeted to those small and mid-sized farmers who most need it, builds up rural communities and their economies, and protects the integrity of God’s creation through robust conservation programs and sustainable agriculture.”
They conclude their letter: "Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the current budget climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is the greatest. And people are hungry."
The Congressional Conference Committee that is negotiating a final Farm Bill is still meeting this week! Contact your Members of Congress to weigh in for a more just food system.
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November 26, 2013
United States Congress
Washington, D.C.
Dear Members of Congress:
We write as the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) concludes a week-long SNAP / Food Stamp Challenge in which we,
the church’s national leaders, as well as hundreds of Presbyterians, chose to
live on an average SNAP benefit, which nationally is about $30 per person per
week. This practice is intended to raise awareness within our community about
the dire food insecurity of many of our neighbors. We realize, of course, that our engaging in
this Challenge is a symbolic gesture, but we also believe that it has meaning
and capacity for building awareness of the very real need in our
communities. We further recognize that
our own reactions to living on SNAP benefit levels for a week – both
psychological and physiological – cannot begin to approach the experience of a
family that is relying for sustenance on these inadequate, and yet essential
benefits.
Even as we learned this lesson,
we acknowledge what privilege we have in bringing it to an end, in seeing a
light at the end of the tunnel, in returning to our usual diets. So as we enter this festival of Thanksgiving,
we give thanks for food and for all the ways that healthy food is available to each
of us. And we give thanks for SNAP, which prevents so many Americans from
falling into severe food insecurity. It is our prayer that we will change
our food system so that no one in this wealthy nation will suffer hunger and
that each and every person will have enough, not too little and not too much.
Through this SNAP Challenge, we
learned in practice what we only previously knew intellectually – that far from
needing to be cut, Food Stamp benefits are too low and need to be increased,
especially in light of the recent Nov. 1st benefit cliff. So, we urge you to refrain from cutting
SNAP, and instead to invest in this program that provides only the most basic
assistance to struggling people in some of their darkest hours.
We further understand from
partners in ministry that we, the churches that engage in ministries of charity
and mercy cannot alone meet the overwhelming need created by cuts to federal
safety net programs. Private charity needs public partnership in order to
answer our call to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked,
care for the sick, and visit those in prison. As earnestly as we try to fill
gaps in services left by government spending cuts, we simply do not have the
resources or capacity to respond to the growing and monumental need caused by a
severe recession, anemic recovery, and systemic inequity.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
further has a long history of commitment to food justice and food system
advocacy. In a letter sent earlier this
year, we called for a “comprehensive Farm Bill that ensures access to food for
hungry people, provides an ample safety net targeted to those small and
mid-sized farmers who most need it, builds up rural communities and their
economies, and protects the integrity of God’s creation through robust
conservation programs and sustainable agriculture.”
Our nation’s food and farm
policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from
rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the current budget
climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where
need is the greatest. And people are
hungry. In particular, we urge you to protect SNAP from cuts that will only
make it harder for people to make ends meet, that will increase food
insecurity, that will leave children hungry.
And as we observe the national
festival devoted to giving thanks, we are thankful for functioning government,
for leaders who devote their lives to public service, and for your own service
to our nation.
Should you have any questions or
wish to hear more about our reflections and learnings during the SNAP / Food
Stamp Challenge, please contact our Office of Public Witness, Leslie Woods,
Representative for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues, (202) 543-1126,
leslie.woods@pcusa.org.
Sincerely,
Reverend Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Reverend Dr. Neal Presa
Moderator of the 220th General Assembly
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Linda Valentine
Executive Director, Presbyterian Mission Agency
