While Congress and President Trump renewed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at the end of last year, the Trump administration is now attempting to take away this food assistance for struggling workers and families.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed a rule in February that would significantly reduce eligibility and spending on SNAP. The administration is seeking these changes despite bipartisan opposition from Congress and despite projections from the USDA that estimate 750,000 adults would lose access to food assistance. The public comment period for the proposed rule closes on April 2.
SNAP, also known as food stamps, is the nation’s primary nutrition assistance program. SNAP helps put food on the table for more than 40 million low-income individuals, including 27 percent of LGBTQ adults aged 18-44.
Approximately 2.2 million LGBTQ adults experienced food insecurity in 2014. Food insecurity is defined as not having enough money to afford food for oneself or one’s family at any point during a year. In 2016, LGBTQ families were 2.3 times more likely to participate in SNAP than non-LGBTQ families. One reason for this is employment discrimination, a significant factor that directly contributes to LGBTQ poverty and unemployment rates. The numbers make clear that poverty is a critical LGBTQ issue: LGBTQ families need SNAP.
But I don’t need the data to tell me this. My family was one of those families.
The stigma of relying on food stamps made me embarrassed as a child, but now I am thankful for the support they have provided for my family. Having food stamps and other public assistance allowed my mother to build a stable and loving home for her kids. I don’t know how we would have survived otherwise.
Growing up in a single-parent household, my Black, lesbian mother depended on food stamps because her low-income wages were not enough. Despite working full-time at her $8 an hour job and seeking overtime whenever she could, my mom could not cover all of our family’s expenses, including the costs of food. Without the critical help food stamps provided, my mom would have struggled to keep a roof over our heads and food in the fridge.
Knowing how hard she worked, it was difficult to see her struggle. From working night shifts to maximize the waking hours she had with her three Black sons, to sometimes taking up a second job, my mom was relentless in her pursuit to provide for her family. Not wanting to add to her stress, I tried helping my mom by asking for very little growing up.
My mother was among the many working poor who are on SNAP. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, roughly three-quarters of adults who participate in SNAP in a typical month work that month or within a year of the month of their initial participation. My mother’s story is an unfortunate reminder that far too many people are working for poverty wages.
Even with food stamps, my mom still struggled to pay for food on a monthly basis. In times of desperation, she had to get creative by borrowing stamps or going to the local food pantry; I even recall some nights going to bed with my stomach growling. Even with food assistance, it’s sad to know that SNAP households still experience financial burdens that is eased but not alleviated by participation in the SNAP program — a Band-Aid remedy. If we struggled in the 1990s, imagine what families are going through now.
Many try to define Black mothers like mine as villains — “welfare queens” — in our national debate over public assistance programs. My mom was never a villain. She was and is my North Star. My mother taught me what it means to be authentic, resilient, loving, kind and generous.
My mother worked incredibly hard, but we still struggled. So many other LGBTQ families are facing the same challenges today. My family’s experience shows how SNAP strengthens families and our communities.
If finalized, the USDA’s proposed rule would result in LGBTQ people losing their access to affordable food through SNAP. This would have a harmful impact on the health and wellness of the LGBTQ community, as well as that of low-income Americans regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
The Trump administration must rescind its proposed rule and protect SNAP, our nation’s first line of defense against hunger.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 143 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy