Latest news with #foodassistance
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
States file lawsuit against Trump administration over efforts to collect SNAP recipients' data
Washington — A coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration's demand that their states turn over personal data of people enrolled in a federally funded food assistance program, fearing the information will be used to aid mass deportations. The data demand comes as the Trump administration has sought to collect private information on mostly lower-income people who may be in the country illegally. It has already ordered the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to share private information with the Department of Homeland Security to aid in deportation efforts.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Warning as thousands of grocery stores suddenly at risk of closure. Use our interactive map to check if your area is on list
Families across the US could soon find it more difficult to buy basic groceries. A sweeping report has revealed that a staggering 27,000 retailers across the country are likely to experience financial hardship due to cuts to food assistance. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes.
Zawya
4 days ago
- Health
- Zawya
The European Union (EU) has not cut down on its humanitarian assistance to address food insecurity in Nigeria
Following a press release published on 25 July by the non-governmental organisation MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), mentioning alleged 'massive cuts' by the European Union (EU), among other international donors, in the response to the nutrition insecurity in Nigeria, the EU Delegation in Nigeria would like to communicate that this information is unsubstantiated and inaccurate, as the level of EU humanitarian support granted by the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Office ECHO in Nigeria in the first half of 2025 has in fact been similar to the one provided in the first half of 2024 and, as done in previous years, the EU is working to increase the amount with additional top ups. Like in 2024, a significant part of ECHO assistance in Nigeria focuses on nutrition, health and food assistance emergency. The EU Delegation takes note of the revised version of the press release published today by MSF, which eliminates the mention of the European Union when speaking of massive cuts by international donors. While commending the work performed by MSF teams, partly through EU funding, to help malnourished children and their mothers in Nigeria, as witnessed by the EU Ambassador during his recent visit to Sokoto State on 19-20 July, the EU Delegation underlines the importance of communicating verified and accurate information on this matter of utmost importance for the Nigerian people. It reiterates the call launched by the EU Ambassador, during his 22 July joint press conference with the Honourable Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction as well as humanitarian partners to urgently enhance resources from domestic and international sources to address the emergency nutrition situation particularly in North-West and North-East Nigeria. The EU Delegation wishes once more to highlight that the EU is keeping its financial commitments and its general level of support across the board in the framework of its partnership with Nigeria. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Delegation of the European Union to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and ECOWAS.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Rich And Profitable Corporations Get Tax Cuts But 22 Million Families Lose Nutrition Support, Says Bernie Sanders, Calls It 'Disgusting'
Millions of low-income American families are set to lose critical food assistance under a new law signed recently by President Donald Trump, as wealthy individuals and major corporations receive fresh tax breaks. The sweeping policy overhaul, part of what Republicans dubbed 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' is facing backlash for what critics say are cruel tradeoffs. Small-Town Grocers And Families Brace For Impact The cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are projected to affect 22.3 million households, with an average loss of $146 per month in benefits, according to research by the Urban Institute. The law also imposes stricter work requirements and new eligibility rules that could disqualify many people, including veterans, older adults and working parents—if they fail to meet documentation or hour Miss: 7,000+ investors have joined Timeplast's mission to eliminate microplastics—now it's your turn to $100k+ in investable assets? – no cost, no obligation. 'The richest Americans who are doing phenomenally well? Rewarded with tax breaks,' Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote on X recently. 'The largest corporations enjoying record-breaking profits? Tax breaks. American families in need? Trump and Congressional Republicans cut nutrition support to 22.3 million of them. Disgusting.' Critics argue that the policy disproportionately hurts low-income communities, especially in rural areas that often supported Trump in the last presidential election. In many small towns, SNAP recipients make up the majority of customers for independent grocery stores, which now fear closure or layoffs. 'I lean pretty heavily right most of the time,' Spence Udall, the mayor of conservative St. Johns, Arizona, which has just one grocery store, told Politico. 'But one of the things that I do lean to the left on is we're a pretty wealthy country, we can help people out.' Trending: This AI-Powered Trading Platform Has 5,000+ Users, 27 Pending Patents, and a $43.97M Valuation — Grocers like RF Buche, who operates the only store on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, say the impact could be devastating. 'I'd just as soon cut a leg off than have my customers out in the poorest county of the United States go without food,' Buche told Politico. He estimates that 60% to 80% of his shoppers rely on SNAP, which makes up nearly half his revenue. A study by the Commonwealth Fund warns that the SNAP cuts will trigger thousands of job losses across agriculture, grocery retail and food processing sectors. That ripple effect could be especially harsh in rural areas, where small stores double as community hubs and economic anchors. As the legislation rolls out, grocery store owners, food bank operators, and families across the U.S. are bracing for a sharp decline in food access. As Sanders put it: 'This bill wipes out nutrition assistance for millions of hungry kids at a time when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of nearly any major nation on earth.' Read Next: Warren Buffett once said, "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die." How do billionaires pay less in income tax than you?.UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article The Rich And Profitable Corporations Get Tax Cuts But 22 Million Families Lose Nutrition Support, Says Bernie Sanders, Calls It 'Disgusting' originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
CNN
21-07-2025
- Health
- CNN
Cuts to food benefits stand in the way of RFK Jr.'s goals for a healthier national diet
Belinda McLoyd has been thinking about peanut butter. McLoyd, 64, receives a small monthly payment through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps. 'They don't give you that much to work with,' she said. To fit her tight budget, she eats ramen noodles — high on sodium and low on nutrition — multiple times a week. If she had more money, said McLoyd, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and heart problems, she'd buy more grapes, melons, chuck roast, ground turkey, cabbage, and turnip greens. That's what she did when lawmakers nearly doubled her SNAP benefit during the pandemic. But now that a GOP-led Congress has approved $186 billion in cuts to the food assistance program through 2034, McLoyd, who worked in retail until she retired in 2016, isn't sure how she will be able to eat any healthy food if her benefits get reduced again. McLoyd said her only hope for healthy eating might be to resort to peanut butter, which she heard 'has everything' in it. 'I get whatever I can get,' said McLoyd, who uses a walker to get around her senior community in southwestern Georgia. 'I try to eat healthy, but some things I can't, because I don't have enough money to take care of that.' The second Trump administration has said that healthy eating is a priority. It released a 'Make America Healthy Again' report citing poor diet as a cause of childhood illnesses and chronic diseases. And it's allowing states — including Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah — to limit purchases of unhealthy food with federal SNAP benefits for the first time in the history of the century-old anti-hunger program. President Donald Trump also signed a tax and spending law on July 4 that will shift costs to states and make it harder for people to qualify for SNAP by expanding existing work requirements. The bill cuts about 20% of SNAP's budget, the deepest cut the program has faced. About 40 million people now receive SNAP payments, but 3 million of them will lose their nutrition assistance completely, and millions more will see their benefits reduced, according to an analysis of an earlier version of the bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Researchers say SNAP cuts run counter to efforts to help people prevent chronic illness through healthy food. 'People are going to have to rely on cheaper food, which we know is more likely to be processed, less healthy,' said Kate Bauer, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. 'It's, 'Oh, we care about health — but for the rich people,'' she said. About 47 million people lived in households with limited or uncertain access to food in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency's research shows that people living in food-insecure households are more likely to develop hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The Trump administration counters that the funding cuts would not harm people who receive benefits. 'This is total fearmongering,' said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in an email. 'The bill will ultimately strengthen SNAP for those who need it by implementing cost-sharing measures with states and commonsense work requirements.' McLoyd and other residents in Georgia's Dougherty County, where Albany is located, already face steep barriers to accessing healthy food, from tight budgets and high rates of poverty to a lack of grocery stores and transportation, said Tiffany Terrell, who founded A Better Way Grocers in 2017 to bring fresh food to people who can't travel to a grocery store. More than a third of residents receive SNAP benefits in the rural, majority-Black county that W.E.B. Du Bois described as 'the heart of the Black Belt' and a place 'of curiously mingled hope and pain,' where people struggled to get ahead in a land of former cotton plantations, in his 1903 book, 'The Souls of Black Folk.' Terrell said that a healthier diet could mitigate many of the illnesses she sees in her community. In 2017, she replaced school bus seats with shelves stocked with fruits, vegetables, meats, and eggs and drove her mobile grocery store around to senior communities, public housing developments, and rural areas. But cuts to food assistance will devastate the region, setting back efforts to help residents boost their diet with fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious food and tackle chronic disease, she said. Terrell saw how SNAP recipients like McLoyd ate healthier when food assistance rose during the pandemic. They got eggs, instead of ramen noodles, and fresh meat and produce, instead of canned sausages. Starting in 2020, SNAP recipients received extra pandemic assistance, which corresponded to a 9% decrease in people saying there was sometimes or often not enough food to eat, according to the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. Once those payments ended in 2023, more families had trouble purchasing enough food, according to a study published in Health Affairs in October. Non-Hispanic Black families, in particular, saw an increase in anxiety, the study found. 'We know that even short periods of food insecurity for kids can really significantly harm their long-term health and cognitive development,' said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst on the food assistance team at the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities. Cuts to SNAP 'will put a healthy diet even farther out of reach for these families.' The Trump administration said it's boosting healthy eating for low-income Americans through restrictions on what they can buy with SNAP benefits. It has begun approving state requests to limit the purchase of soda and candy with SNAP benefits. 'Thank you to the governors of Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, and Nebraska for their bold leadership and unwavering commitment to Make America Healthy Again,' said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a press release about the requests. 'I call on every governor in the nation to submit a SNAP waiver to eliminate sugary drinks — taxpayer dollars should never bankroll products that fuel the chronic disease epidemic.' Although states have asked for such restrictions in the past, previous administrations, including the first Trump administration, never approved them. Research shows that programs encouraging people to buy healthy food are more effective than regulating what they can buy. Such limits increase stigma on families that receive benefits, are burdensome to retailers, and often difficult to implement, researchers say. 'People make incredibly tough choices to survive,' said Gina Plata-Nino, the deputy director of SNAP at the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, and a former senior policy adviser in the Biden administration. 'It's not about soda and candy,' she said. 'It's about access.' Terrell said she is unsure how people will survive if their food benefits are further trimmed. 'What are we thinking people are going to do?' said Terrell of A Better Way Grocers, who also opened a bustling community market last year that sells fresh juices, smoothies, and wellness shots in downtown Albany. 'We'll have people choosing between food and bills.' That's true for Stephen Harrison, 22, whose monthly SNAP benefit supports him, along with his parents and younger brother. During the pandemic, he used the extra assistance to buy strawberries and grapes, but now he comes into A Better Way Grocers to buy an orange when he can. Harrison, who is studying culinary arts at Albany Technical College, said his family budgets carefully to afford meals like pork chops with cornbread and collard greens, but he said that, if his benefits are cut, the family will have to resort to cheaper foods. 'I'd buy hot dogs,' he said with a shrug. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
