Kelly Allen, Morgantown
A letter written in The Dominion Post on Monday asked, “If you’re able to work, why must taxpayers feed you?” The simple answer is that many West Virginians don’t make enough at their jobs to make ends meet. Two-thirds of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients live in a working household, but they still need help putting food on the table.
In the Federal Farm Bill, the GOP-led Congress and President Trump propose
$17 billion in cuts to SNAP. They also expand work requirements to parents of children over 6 years old and to seniors up to age 60 in addition to other adults from ages 18-49 who are already required to work. Most of these folks already work, but they often do so at seasonal or unstable jobs with uncertain schedules, all of which make meeting strict monthly work requirements difficult.
Those who do meet work requirements will still be at risk of losing their benefits due to burdensome reporting requirements. The SNAP proposal would require anyone who receives SNAP to prove every single month that he or she worked enough hours or met an exemption in order to keep benefits. Those who miss one month of reporting — because they were caring for a sick child or working when the Deparment of Health and Human Resources was open — would be locked out of SNAP benefits for a year.
SNAP work requirements don’t force corporations to hire more people or offer steadier hours. They don’t add a bus route where there wasn’t one before. They don’t offer sick leave or child care to families. They don’t address any real barriers to employment.
Poor West Virginians aren’t on food assistance because it’s easy; they are on it because they are often stuck in low-wage jobs with few ways out. Our lawmakers should support vital food assistance while working on real solutions to low wages and poverty.
