156 posts categorized "SNAP"

Children enjoy a snack at an after-school program in Washington, D.C. (Mark Fenton)

The Herman family, members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) living in California's Central Valley, have decided to follow a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food budget during Lent. They will be blogging about their journey and sharing their stories on the Bread Blog.

By Ivan Herman

Church members keep coming to me and asking, “Pastor Ivan, is there any way we can help you and your family? Can we take you out to eat or bring over a casserole for the freezer?” I give a variation of the same answer every time: “Thanks, but no thanks.” “That kind of defeats the purpose of the Lenten discipline.” I know they mean well, but when you find someone who is fasting from chocolate for Lent, do you offer them a Snickers?

As often as I try to graciously say “no,” I must also find a way to graciously say “yes.” Jeremy said, “I took your daughter out for an ice cream at McDonald’s. I hope that doesn’t ruin your budget.” Wyn said during a Stephen Ministry devotional, “Here’s an onion. You can do a lot with an onion.” My father, during his vacation, said, “Even people on SNAP have granddads who give grandkids treats.”

But then there is our dear friend, Crystal. She and her husband, Jeff, know what it’s like to be on SNAP. Some years ago when their first child was born prematurely, Jeff had just been laid off from his job. They had no income, no significant savings, and were consumed with daily running back and forth to the hospital to care for their new baby girl. When applying for assistance to cover the cost of the medical bills for the baby, the social worker told them they could apply for SNAP. “How are you putting food on the table?” she asked them. Extended family and church friends had been graciously providing them food, but their need was evident. While it was only a matter of a couple months before Jeff was back to work and they were off SNAP, in their hour most filled with need it was a difficult decision to say “yes” to SNAP. There is such a stigma attached to asking for food stamp help.

A few Sundays ago Crystal approached my wife, Susan, in the church parking lot. She thrust a brown paper grocery bag into her arms without asking. “Take it. You’ll need it.”

Inside the bag was a handwritten note:

Ivan and Susan,

Well I thought this could help you in more ways than one. Besides the simple fact of needing more food than money can buy, any extra food can always help.

But also in my life I have found it to be easy to be on the giving end of help. It is a hard thing to ask for help from a friend, family member, or stranger. But when your family is in need you have to push aside pride and be willing to take a helping hand.

So this is our gift to you, some food for thought.

Crystal

Annie Lamott’s newest book, Help, Thanks, Wow: Three Essential Prayers distills our conversations with God into these simple words. She said in an interview that “Help …is the great prayer, and it is the hardest prayer, because you have to admit defeat — you have to surrender, which is the hardest thing any of us do, ever.”

Even among generations there is a marked difference in the ability to ask for help and the perception of SNAP. A March 3 article in the Sacramento Bee explored the need among seniors. There is a growing population who are seeking food assistance from food charities, yet who won’t seek help from SNAP.  “So many are eligible for CalFresh food stamps, … but they look at that as a welfare program as opposed to a nutrition supplement.” River City Food Bank saw the number of older adults seeking assistance rise by 25 percent in 2012.

I’m convinced Crystal is right. It is easier to be on the giving end of help than it is to ask for help.  I don’t always ask for help when I need it.  But I do pray that when I ask for it, that I will have the wisdom and ability to push aside my pride to do so.  I also pray there will be assistance programs like SNAP to provide that help.  And when I don’t ask for it, yet still need it, may there be generous hearts with overflowing brown paper bags that come unbidden.

Ivan Herman is associate pastor at Carmichael Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, Calif.

By Sarah Godfrey

This weekend, the Washington Post ran a feature story about a Rhode Island town where SNAP is not only keeping families fed, but businesses afloat. In a long piece filled with heartbreaking statistics and anecdotes about the effects of the economic downturn, one detail is especially wrenching—the fact that two of the story's subjects, who are struggling to put food on the table, work in grocery stores.

Rebecka and Jourie Ortiz, a couple living in Woonsocket, R.I., are working hard to feed themselves and their two young daughters. After a period of unemployment—they both lost their jobs to downsizing—they find work in local supermarkets:

They had applied for jobs until finally, late in 2012, they had both been hired for the only work high school graduates were finding in a low-wage recovery: part time at a nearby supermarket, the nicest one in the area, a two-story Stop & Shop across the Massachusetts line.

She made $8 an hour, and he earned $9. She worked days in produce, and he worked nights as a stocker. Their combined monthly income of $1,700 was still near the poverty line, and they still qualified for SNAP.

Hungry and poor people are, more and more, finding themselves in the position of serving and stocking food that is increasingly out of their reach. The number of U.S jobs in food service—which includes grocery store clerks, restaurant staff, and warehouse and field workers—has seen growth during the recession, but wages for those positions has dropped. 

Last year, the Food Chain Workers Alliance explored that issue in its study "The Hand That Feeds Us." According to the report, "[m]ore than 86 percent of workers reported earning subminimum, poverty, and low wages, resulting in a sad irony: food workers face higher levels of food insecurity, or the inability to afford to eat, than the rest of the U.S. workforce."

Spending all day arranging produce in alluring, glistening towers or bagging up hot, greasy fries only to get home and face an empty cupboard seems an especially harsh injustice. Susan Herman, who is writing about her family's SNAP budget challenge, recently blogged about this exchange with a supermarket employee:

“I wish I got paid enough to afford Girl Scout cookies," said the Raley’s employee when our Brownies tried to sell him cookies at a site sale a few weeks ago. He smiled, then coupled on several more grocery carts to the one he’d wheeled in from the parking lot, and clatter-squeaked back into the store.

“Oh. Hmm,” the girls nodded. Then, remembering their coached response they called to his red-vested back, “Thanks anyway!”

I’m not about to rant about how low-wage workers should be able to afford Girl Scout cookies....You can buy cookies at the store with SNAP benefits, but not Girl Scout cookies.

Still, the Raley’s cart-retriever struck a nerve. He may not actually be living in poverty or even approaching 130 percent of the poverty line–at which point he’d be eligible for SNAP–but many workers do. Why is that?

Federal nutrition programs help low-wage workers feed themselves and their families, but many of them still struggle. The Post article on Woonsocket shows just how difficult it can be for families to put food on the table, even on more than one income. The reporter catches a moment when the family is running low on food—it's the last day of the month and they are rationing to be sure their girls have enough to eat. Jourie turns down a simple snack before starting off on his mile-long walk to Stop & Shop, the food emporium that employs him.

Now [Rebecka] reached into the refrigerator and grabbed two string cheeses for her daughters. Then she reached back for a third.

“Do you want a snack for work?” she asked Jourie, who was getting dressed for his midnight shift.

“Do we have enough?”

“I think so,” she said, handing him the cheese. “But I’m shopping tomorrow.”

“I’ll wait,” he said, handing it back. He stood up and hugged her goodbye.

Sarah Godfrey is Bread for the World's associate online editor.

+

Write your members of Congress and urge them to ensure a place at the table for all people by providing adequate funding for programs, such as SNAP, that address hunger and help lift people out of poverty.

The Herman family, members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) living in California's Central Valley, have decided to follow a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food budget during Lent. They will be blogging about their journey and sharing their stories on the Bread Blog.

By Susan Herman

I’ve been a foodie since the late '90s, when the film Big Night came out, and Alton Brown started his TV show Good Eats. Ivan and I love to host BBQs and theme parties, planning and prepping for days beforehand. Bring on the Inauguration Day clam chowder, the King Cake, the Robert Burns Supper! Most recently I enjoyed a blogger cookie exchange with other local foodies, and really enjoyed myself.

But since taking the SNAP challenge, I’m surprised to feel anger welling up. Anger toward myself and toward my fellow foodies. Here’s why: we have a class bias. We aspire to eat the best food, but how many of us also truly aspire—and take action—for everyone to have access to the best food? Why do we allow such a gap to exist?

By “the best food” I’m not talking about lobster and caviar. I can’t afford and don’t really lust after those things. I’m talking mainly about fresh, local fruits and veggies, preferably those that are grown without chemicals. (Yes, there were a few fruits and vegetables featured in the theme parties I’ve listed above.)

And I’m talking about fish that are responsibly harvested, eggs from chickens that have room to roam (and chicken from chickens that have room to roam), beef and pork from cows and pigs that aren’t treated with hormones and producing swamps of toxic waste.

Stuart Leavenworth, editorial page editor for the Sacramento Bee, questioned in a recent Forum section whether Sacramento is ready to face the challenges of the “Farm to Fork” movement. He contrasted mayor Kevin Johnson’s plans to brand the city as a food destination with the reality that “most consumers purchase the cheapest food available, regardless of season.” Being a food destination will mean that more restaurants are serving locally-sourced foods and that events such as the Foodie Film Fest draw healthy numbers. And this will be a good thing, a positive challenge for Sacramento. But how can we also ensure that low-income people, particularly in this rich agricultural region, can buy and cook that fresh-from-the-farm good stuff?  Many area farmers markets are now able to swipe EBT cards and accept SNAP dollars, but, unfortunately, junk food still usually provides more calories for fewer dollars—and hungry people are often forced to choose quantity over quality.

I just waded through 330 typeset pages of unbridled wonkery—a book called All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? by Joel Berg (2008, Seven Stories Press), which was recommended to me by a social worker friend. A great read. Toward the end, the author notes that some farm-to-fork advocates assert that increased food prices "are a good thing because they deter people from buying junk food.”

How do you answer that, friends? Is that class bias? Is it helpful?

Susan Herman is an independent editor and coordinates the Northern California chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association.

The Herman family, members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) living in California's Central Valley, have decided to follow a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food budget during Lent. They will be blogging about their journey and sharing their stories on the Bread Blog.

By Ivan Herman

Knowing that fruit is really one of the most expensive parts of our food budget, I took the chance. Nobody was watching. It wasn’t free, exactly, but nobody wanted it. No, I didn’t steal it. It was in the trash bin. Sitting right on top of a bed of dry paper (come on people, recycle!), gleaming yellow with light brown freckles. It looked a bit soft on the bottom end, but the peel was unbroken and clean. I reached down and quickly snagged it, hoping nobody would notice. If someone did see, they would think I was retrieving something I dropped accidentally. I quickly made my way out to the parking lot and chucked it into the front seat of the car to save until my meetings were over.

I felt like a hunter-gatherer or a survivalist who isn’t fool enough to pass by an opportunity for nutritious calories that drop in my lap. Low-hanging fruit, one might say. But plucking someone else’s banana from the top of a trash can isn’t freegan dumpster-diving. I mean, it’s not the same as digging through rubbish bins and scarfing down other people’s half-eaten chicken sandwiches or cold Pad Thai takeaway.

Or is it?

Statistics alert:  More than half of all fruits and vegetables end up rotting in bins, fields, or landfills rather than being eaten. We lose more than we use!  If, as a nation, we could improve efficiency and reduce just 15 percent of our food waste per year, we could feed more than 25 million people just on what we save. As it stands now, it seems I’m more likely to find fruit in the trash than I am to find it in a bowl.

As I watch the budget, I’m aware we’re not halfway through the month, yet we’re two-thirds of the way through our SNAP allotment. We’re cooking quite a bit from scratch (e.g. baking bread, making yogurt). We are trying to be frugal, and are maintaining a nutritious and balanced diet. Yes, a fair amount of consumable assets still reside in the pantry and fridge, but it’s starting to look like lean times will be upon us.

Perhaps I’ll keep my eyes open and visit the bin again soon.

Ivan Herman is associate pastor at Carmichael Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, Calif.

Related articles

40 Days of SNAP: Figuring Out a Food Budget

By Susan Herman

Our second grader, Camilla, will cap off a project about ancestry with a dinner at school. Each student is to bring a family artifact to display at the dinner, as well as two dishes to share: a main dish and a vegetable or dessert. Each dish should serve 8, says the assignment sheet.

Well, this is awkward.

It’s not a huge expense—we are putting maybe five extra dollars into this meal from our SNAP grocery budget—but it was just sort of assumed that each family could afford to buy and prepare food for this special event. What if we really couldn’t spare it?

Broccoli from the Herman family garden, and an orange from a neighbor's tree. (Photo courtesy of the Herman family)

The Herman family, members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) living in California's Central Valley, have decided to follow a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food budget during Lent. They will be blogging about their journey and sharing their stories on the Bread Blog.

By Ivan Herman

Week two was a bit tight.  The kids were out of school for President’s Week, so instead of receiving “free lunch,” their lunches had to be covered by our SNAP budget.  Additionally, my parents were visiting from North Carolina and participating with us on the Food Stamp Challenge.  While we added $1.10 per person, per meal during their visit, there were a number of moments when I could tell that Grandpop was going through pie and cookie withdrawal.  With the exception of an ice cream splurge by Grandpop for the kids (I admit—we all enjoyed it) that he proclaimed was an “even families on SNAP sometimes get treats from grandparents” moment, we did pretty well in sticking to the budget.

Toward the end of the month, though, we started to feel the pinch.  Thank goodness for the backyard.  We have a neighbor with a lemon and two orange trees that overhang our fence by a few feet.  The Meyer lemons and navel oranges added some variety to a couple of days that started looking carbohydrate-heavy with rice and flour from the pantry.  A family from church who live down the street brought over some of the oranges off their backyard tree, too.

I’m also harvesting some broccoli from our garden. It ain’t necessarily pretty, but it is edible. SNAP benefits do allow for the purchase of seeds. With a little patience, some educational resources, a bit of a green thumb, and some access to land or a community garden, it’s possible to grow food at low cost.

But such a combination for many people is often difficult to come by, particularly in urban areas.

Backyard gardens are not a solution to hunger for most people. Not only does it take additional time, effort, and acreage many don’t have, there is also no guarantee of success, and efforts to improve backyard yield often cost more than the food itself would. My Dad tells a tale of deer devastating his tomato garden, so the one lonely tomato he harvested cost him more than $200.  (For a similar tale of the cost-ineffectiveness of home gardening, listen to last year’s Freakonomics podcast, The Tale of the $15 Tomato.)

There are some organizations that provide food solutions that come from gardens. Soil Born Farms, an urban farming initiative aims to educate urban dwellers about growing food.  They also organize Harvest Sacramento, a movement to harvest fruits from neighborhood trees that could otherwise go to waste.  More than 53,000 pounds of fruit was harvested and donated out of back yards in Sacramento in 2012 through this program.

Food assistance organizations like food closets and food pantries sometimes gladly accept fresh backyard produce to distribute to those in need.  They can’t often receive fresh produce through food banks, and grocery stores often have policies to prevent them from donating expired, but still good produce. Websites like AmpleHarvest.org catalog the places where you can take all those eggplants and zucchinis that overrun your backyard garden in the summer so that others may enjoy the fruits of your labors.  Other organizations like Senior Gleaners, Society of Saint Andrew, and Gleanings for the Hungry accept surplus or unsold produce from farmers and farm stands and put it to good use to feed the hungry in this country and around the world.  Look for organizations like these in your neck of the woods.

Ivan Herman is associate pastor at Carmichael Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, Calif.

By Ivan Herman

There’s a simple answer and a complex rationale. First, the simple answer: $396 per month.

To put it another way, that comes to about $1.10 per meal, per person for our family of four.

We have calculated that with the federal SNAP Prescreening Eligibility Tool.

The pretend scenario goes like this: We are a family of four. Parents are able-bodied. One parent works full-time earning $11.50 per hour. This is the total family income of $23,000. The Federal Poverty Level for a family of four in 2012 was $23,050. The second parent cares for the dependent children and assists an elderly parent who lives nearby. This parent receives no income from these jobs.

According to the CalFresh (California’s version of SNAP) website, “All able-bodied persons (ages 18-49) without dependents must work 20 hours per week (monthly average 80 hours) or participate 20 hours per week in an approved work activity or do workfare. If not, these persons receive only 3 months of CalFresh benefits in a 36-month period.”

I calculated the rent to be $850 (imagine a two-bedroom in Carmichael, Calif.) with utilities not included. No additional assets, unearned income, dependent care expenses, child support, or savings.  Like many American families, we live paycheck to paycheck.

Under this scenario we would qualify for between $390 and $399 in SNAP assistance each month. This falls in line with many other food stamp challenge budgets.

That is our starting point. But our execution of this discipline and challenge gets still more complicated.

Tara Marks, a Bread activist from Pittsburgh, once used WIC and SNAP benefits. She is currently in law school and gave testimony to the Senate Budget Committee on Feb. 13, 2013. (Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World)

By Robin Stephenson

Today, Tara Marks is in law school—and yesterday she told members of the Senate Budget Committee that her journey from poverty to an advanced degree program was possible thanks to WIC and other similar federal programs.

Many of you remember Tara as the face of the 2012 Offering of Letters video "A Hunger for Advocacy." Her story of poverty so extreme that she skipped meals to provide enough for her son is an inspiration for many advocates at Bread for the World. Pell grants, WIC, and SNAP were the stepping stones that helped Tara escape poverty.

Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) invited Tara to give testimony. Sen. Murray has said that budgets "...are about the families across America whose lives will be impacted by the decisions we make. They are about their jobs, their children, and their future, and we owe it to them to make sure they have a voice in this process—and that their values and perspectives are heard.”

Tara’s journey plainly shows that budget discussions are about more than numbers—fiscal decisions have real consequences.

For Tara, a budget that funded domestic nutrition programs created a path out of hunger and poverty for her and her son, Nathan. During her testimony, Tara noted that when she was hungry, abundance surrounded her. “This was not a question of availability of food, but a question of affording it. I did not live in a food desert; I lived in a food mirage. I had many grocery stores around me, but I could not afford to go in and shop.”

She passed out from hunger before finally applying for SNAP (formerly food stamps), which gave her access to adequate food.  Food assistance alone did not help Tara move up the ladder of prosperity, but it gave her the stability to get the education that did.

Stories like Tara's and Nathan's not only humanize hunger and poverty, but serve to remind our members of Congress that decisions made today will affect lives tomorrow.  When Murray asked Tara where she thought she would be today were it not for those federal programs, she replied, “I would still be in poverty.”

In a continued effort to give families across the country a place at the budget negotiation table, Murray offers an online platform that allows members of the public to share their stories and ideas. Add your voice to the existing 2,000 submissions.

Today, one of the programs that provided critical assistance to Tara and Nathan—WIC—is in danger.  If the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester are allowed to go forward in the next couple of days, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 600,000 infants, children, and expectant moms will be without this vital assistance.  Their futures may well depend on your hunger for advocacy.  Call your member of Congress at 1-800-826-3688 and tell them that cutting programs that effectively combat hunger and poverty will not solve our country’s fiscal problems.

Robin Stephenson is national social media lead and senior regional organizer, western hub, at Bread for the World.

A woman shops for produce at a supermarket (USDA photo).

The Herman family, members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) living in California's Central Valley, have decided to follow a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food budget during Lent. They will be blogging about their journey and sharing their stories on the Bread Blog. 

By Ivan and Susan Herman

We live in California’s Central Valley, where the best fruits, veggies, and nuts are grown. We care about food and enjoy eating well.

We are members of the Presbyterian Church (USA), one tradition among many that says “be the body of Christ.” And what is more important to the body–yes, Christ’s body–than food?

So, in 2013 during Lent, we are practicing the discipline of living on a food budget that mirrors, as closely as possible, food stamps—or as it’s now known, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

What will we remove or add to our grocery cart to make the dollars work? How will we deviate from the plan to accommodate the less-movable fixtures of our lifestyle? How will we change our lifestyle to accommodate the plan? What lessons will our children (ages 3 and 7) learn?

Ours is a faith that seeks understanding. We do and we learn and belief follows; we believe and learn and do; the spiral edges outward.

You’re invited to join us on our journey. Please feel free to:

• Comment on our posts with advice, ideas, tips, and encouragement—honest critique also welcome!
• Send us links to articles on SNAP and other issues related to food, the farm bill, and making more with less
• Send us your own stories about hunger and plenty, and what you’ve learned from that experience

Ivan Herman is Associate Pastor at Carmichael Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, California. Susan Herman is an independent editor and coordinates the Northern California chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association.

By Robin Stephenson 

If you’re an advocate who has worked with Bread for the World for a while, you’ve probably heard your regional organizer talk about congressional committees. Organizers stress the importance of knowing the committee assignments of your members of Congress, and the relevance those assignments hold for our campaign issues. If you’re new to advocacy, you may wonder why it matters.

During a new congressional term, each political party assigns its members to positions on committees. Committees are where the bulk of the work in shaping legislation happens. They allow members to focus on specific issues—often something relevant to an industry in a member’s home district or state. Once a member has received a committee assignment, he or she will often hire or appoint staff with specialized knowledge in that area to advise them. And not all committee seats are created equal: committee chairs and ranking members (usually the longest-serving minority party members) hold important leadership positions.  

If your member’s voice is more influential on a particular issue because of a committee assignment, that means your voice has more influence on the outcome of a bill. If the bill affects hungry and poor people, we need your voice to be as loud as possible and we will ask you to use it often.

A good example from my region is that of Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is the chair of the Senate finance committee. His committee has jurisdiction over tax increases and entitlement reforms (its counterpart committee in the  House is called ways and means). As budget negotiations heat up, the future of anti-hunger programs will depend on increased revenues, and the best way for legislators to increase revenue is through tax reform.

Congress can’t rely solely on spending cuts if it wants to balance the budget without increasing poverty. We want to encourage Baucus and his committee to draft legislation that makes refundable tax credits, such as the EITC, permanent. These credits are critical to low-income working families. In order to achieve this, not only will Baucus need to support revenue increases, he will need to convince the ranking member of the committee, Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah), that they must do so together, as part of a bipartisan effort.

During these highly politicized budget negotiations, doing the best thing for hungry and poor people isn’t always easy. But even if it is difficult, we need our members of Congress to make the right decisions. They need to know that a balanced budget should not increase poverty, but set a framework for a future in which we can continue the work of ending hunger and increasing prosperity. And the people who can deliver that message are their voters.

Anti-hunger advocates in Montana and Utah have their work cut out for them during the next several months. We will encourage increased public dialogue through op-eds and letters to the editor. Using meetings and phone calls to let members of Congress know about hungry people in their districts and states is also critical.  

Below is a list of the key committees with jurisdiction over the programs relevant to each of our 2013 issue areas. Only the committee chairs are listed. To find out if any of your members of Congress are on a relevant committee, click the link for the full roster.

Protect Funding for SNAP:  Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) is authorized through the farm bill. 

• Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry:  Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) Full Roster
• House Committee on Agriculture: Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla., Dist. 3) and ranking member Colin Peterson (D-Minn., Dist. 7) Full Roster

Protect Funding for PFDA:  Poverty-focused development assistance, programs that end hunger abroad, is under the jurisdiction of foreign relations.

• Senate Committee on Foreign Relations:  Chairman VACANT, ranking member Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)  Full Roster
• House Foreign Affairs Committee: Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif., Dist. 40) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y., Dist. 16)  Full Roster

Protect Funding for WIC:  The Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women Infants and Children is authorized through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

• Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry:  Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) Full Roster
• House Education and the Workforce Committee:  Chairman John Kline (R-Minn., Dist. 2) and ranking member Thomas Petri (D-Wis., Dist. 6) Full Roster

Preserve the EITC and CTC and Raise Revenue to Support Anti-Hunger Programs:  Tax credits that help working families and tax reform are under the jurisdiction of the tax writing committees.

• Senate Committee on Finance:  Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Orin Hatch (R-Utah)  Full Roster
• House Committee on Ways and Means:  Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich., Dist. 4) and ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich., Dist. 9)  Full Roster

But perhaps one of the most important committees dealing with funding of these programs is appropriations.  It is essential that when they make funding choices, programs for poor and hungry people are protected.

• Senate Committee on Appropriations:  Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) Full Roster
• House Committee on Appropriations:  Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky., Dist. 5) and ranking member Nita Lowey (R-N.Y., Dist. 17) Full Roster

Robin Stephenson is national social media lead and senior regional organizer, western hub, at Bread for the World.