Senate Committee Farm Bill Cuts SNAP Fruit and Vegetable Purchases by $862 Million

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: Jennifer Adach, 202.986.2200 x3018

Washington, D.C. – June 4, 2012 – Less food in the refrigerator for struggling families. That’s what the Senate SNAP proposal in the Farm Bill means. The bill, which is anticipated to hit the Senate floor this week, contains a $4.49 billion/10 years cut to SNAP that would limit states’ ability to acknowledge families’ shelter costs, through a “Heat and Eat” policy, when computing how much money families actually have from wages, Social Security, or other sources to spend on food.

What this means for struggling households:

• Hungry people will see their benefits fall. An estimated 500,000 households a year would lose $90 per month in SNAP benefits.
• People will have less money to spend on healthier food. The most recent USDA data show that vegetables and fruits account for 19.6 percent of the money value of food used by SNAP households. A $4.49 billion SNAP cut means the bill cuts $862 million in purchases of fruits and vegetables.
  

Federal Consumer Expenditure Survey data show that low-income households’ food purchases by category, percentage-wise, resemble those of households with more resources, albeit low-income households’ expenditures are smaller.

“With millions of people struggling to pay for food, housing, health, and energy costs in this tough economy, the nation’s safety net must be strengthened -- not eroded,” said FRAC President Jim Weill. “Attempts to dismiss this cut as an ‘accounting’ fix obscure the fact that it is a cut in benefits with real impact on people and their ability to purchase food, including the food groups that the Committee has indicated it seeks to support in other parts of the bill benefitting families.”