EmailBy Mike Clifford
Nevada News Service
A new report ranks Nevada seventh in the nation for food hardship, and today local advocates are in the nation’s capital to meet with Sen. Harry Reid on the issue. The nationwide survey from FRAC — the Food Research and Action Center — found that more than one-in-five Nevadans had trouble finding the money to purchase food at some point in 2012.
Joyelyn Lantrip with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada said it is important that lawmakers in Washington get a clear picture of what’s happening back home.
“We are going to meet with Sen. Reid about cuts in the Farm Bill,” she said. “We are very concerned about what cuts to SNAP will do to our clients, who are struggling so much.”
Lantrip said the automatic sequester cuts that are just starting to take effect are a step in the wrong direction. The nation needs to be expanding food stamp programs like SNAP, not making deep cuts, she added.
In Nevada and the nation, parents in too many families are skipping meals so kids can get enough to eat, said FRAC president Jim Weill.
“The answer is we need more jobs at better wages,” he stressed, “but we also need more adequate programs, and particularly we need to make food stamps benefits more adequate. Congress keeps pushing in the other direction and keeps threatening to cut food stamp benefits. That’s just ridiculous.”
FRAC is co-sponsoring a National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., that comes to a close on Tuesday with a day of action on Capitol Hill and a chance to address the hunger issue with lawmakers.
