Viewpoint from Emily Weikert Bryant, Executive Director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry
Published in the IBJ on June 7,2024
Feeding Indiana’s Hungry is deeply concerned by some of the harmful provisions included in the draft farm bill introduced last month by the U.S. House of Representatives Agricultural Committee chair.
The farm bill plays a pivotal role in addressing food insecurity, yet policy changes proposed by the bill make harmful cuts to crucial federal nutrition programs that help millions of people access the food they need to thrive.
Food insecurity is on the rise in Indiana and across the United States—the highest rates since 2014. In 2022, the number of people living in food-insecure households increased to 44 million across the country, including 13 million children. One in seven Hoosiers experienced food insecurity, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The farm bill is a crucial opportunity to quickly reduce hunger in our communities and support the work of food banks like our members.
While the House farm bill text does propose several limited improvements to nutrition programs, those are vastly outweighed by provisions that would weaken the government’s ability to provide vital resources to people facing hunger. In particular, the bill would prevent future benefits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from reflecting costs associated with updated nutrition guidance and the ways people shop and cook.
This would cut nearly $30 billion in food assistance benefits, which would impact all future SNAP recipients, including children, older adults and people with disabilities—and increase pressure on the nation’s already strained food banks. The bill would also make concerning changes to SNAP that could threaten the dignity of neighbors to choose the foods that work best for them and their families.
The bill includes positive provisions that increase eligibility and access to SNAP, including for seniors and individuals with drug felony convictions. It also includes a provision to allow American Indian tribes and tribal organizations to enter into self-determination contracts with the USDA to administer SNAP.
Also vital to increasing people’s access to nutritious foods is The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which moves food from U.S. farmers and producers through food banks to families facing hunger. Providing crucial investments in assistance programs not only ensures that families can access healthy food but also bolsters our U.S. farm economy. Currently, the House farm bill provides an additional $40 million per year for entitlement food purchases for the assistance program, far lower than the significant increase our member food banks need to address hunger in our communities.
The bill would also limit the USDA’s authority to use Commodity Credit Corp. funds without explicit congressional approval, creating a barrier to the USDA’s providing additional funds to purchase food distributed through assistance programs.
As the farm bill progresses through the legislative process, Feeding Indiana’s Hungry supports legislation that will make strategic investments to help end hunger, without making harmful cuts and policy changes to SNAP, SNAP’s Thrifty Food Plan future benefits or any of the other federal nutrition plans. We urge Congress to prioritize a robust, bipartisan bill to ensure that everyone in Indiana and across the nation has access to nutritious food.
