Dear Editor,
I joined the Shelburne Food Shelf over ten years ago when there were about 30 families coming for help. Over time, that increased to 40 or 45 households per month. During the pandemic, the number of households served grew to between 90 and 100 families per month. Today, that peak has turned into a high plateau with 130 families served each month.
The increase is due to Inflation and to wages that have not kept pace with costs. Please remember, this is Shelburne, a relatively affluent town in Vermont; the census in less affluent towns is higher.
Right now, the Congress is getting ready to vote on huge cuts to food aid in order to give tax breaks to billionaires. These cuts will leave children and families hungry — not food insecure — hungry. Food shelves alone cannot provide enough food for entire families 365 days per year.
SNAP benefits 66,500 Vermonters and the cuts considered will shift $38 million to the Vermont state budget if Vermont can maintain the benefit. Experts say this shift is not sustainable. Our state covering this entire additional cost seems unlikely, given the current budget.
Yet Congress appears willing to make these cuts. They appear willing to force hungry people to prove they are working; this is when many people that use food shelves cannot do that. They work in our cash economy as housekeepers or day laborers and, therefore, cannot provide pay stubs.
Families are getting by on a day-to-day and week-to week basis. Nearly 35,000 Vermont SNAP recipients live in households with a person who is disabled or an older adult. These households have already been devastated by inflation and are likely to be further hurt when tariffs (a regressive tax on lower income individuals and families) flow through the system.
The cuts go beyond SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) and include further cuts to farm to school programs and even to food inspection and safety standards. Remember that 2 months ago the USDA slashed $500 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program which will hurt food banks, the main supplier of food to local food shelves.
Congress is making a choice to give tax breaks to the wealthiest rather than provide food to hungry Americans. This is unconscionable — and we will not forget.
Susan Stock
Former Shelburne Food Shelf board chair and current volunteer
