Bay Area food banks have united in an urgent appeal against the devastating federal budget proposal that threatens to inflict deep cuts into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known in California as CalFresh. The proposed $211 billion reduction in funding, the largest cut to food assistance in U.S. history, could result in up to 9.5 billion lost meals annually on a national scale and 1.1 billion in California alone, as per estimates from Feeding America.
At a press event hosted by Second Harvest of Silicon Valley on Tuesday, Tanis Crosby, executive director of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, joined other food bank leaders to condemn the proposed cuts. "SNAP is the single most effective anti-poverty tool that we have in this country. And it worked in the pandemic," Crosby stated, highlighting the role of SNAP benefits in halving child poverty during the crisis. This sentiment was echoed by leaders from other regional food banks, as reported by the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, known for distributing food equivalent to 56 million meals annually and serving 53,000 households weekly, emphasized the potential detriment the budget proposal could cause to their operations. "The current budget would wipe out all of this," expressed Barbara Abbott, the chief supply chain officer, about the food bank's efforts, including services for housebound seniors. With the emphasis on the importance of private donations and a matching program, Abbott underlined the ability to provide four meals with every dollar donated, per KRON4.
