Kirk Franklin - Revolution

Dear James,

BREAKING: Overnight, the U.S. Senate voted for a budget that literally takes food away from hungry children.

The budgets that have now passed both the House and Senate make deep, painful cuts to the food stamps program--called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.¹ ONE IN FIVE children in the U.S. depend on SNAP for their meals.² These cuts would be devastating and threaten to kick MILLIONS off the program. But they aren't law yet--and we still have a chance to stop them from going into effect if we mount a major fight right now, before these cuts are set in stone in the next few weeks. Will you sign the petition telling Congress not to cut millions of families' access to food?

Tell Congress: Taking food away from families is plain wrong. Leave SNAP alone!

Forty six million people depend on the $1.38 per day SNAP gives them for meals.³ Sixty percent of SNAP recipients are children, people with disability, veterans, and the elderly.⁴ And with 40 percent of households relying on a female breadwinner, women will feel the brunt of the cuts.⁵

But this out of touch Congress has been chipping away at SNAP funding. In the past two years, it threatened to kick off between four to six million people below the poverty line.⁶ Now it plans to squeeze low-income families even tighter, aiming to kick MILLIONS more off the program.

These Congress members are falsely accusing the families who rely on SNAP of "gaming" the system, when in fact 92 percent of SNAP recipients are families who earn below the poverty line and 57 percent earn below HALF the poverty line.⁷ In 2011 alone, SNAP lifted 4.7 million people out of poverty. Not to mention, the program is a net boon to the economy, returning $9 for each $5 spent on the program.⁸ But conservatives in Congress are relying on wildly dishonest stereotypes to cut millions of poor families off from the mere $1.38 per day per person that SNAP provides.

We only have a few weeks. We have to mount a fight right now and the coming weeks to show them the huge public backlash waiting if they dare attack SNAP.

Will you add your name?

Thanks for joining us.

--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Adam, Gabriela, Holly, Kaili, Kathy, Onyi, Susan, Clarise, Anathea, Megan, Audine, and Ryan, the UltraViolet team



Sources:

1. Senate Passes GOP Budget After Late-Night Debate, The Huffington Post, March 27, 2015

House Republicans Propose Budget With Deep Cuts, The New York Times, March 17, 2015

2. One In 5 American Kids Are On Food Stamps, The Huffington Post, January 28, 2015

3. What $1.38 Can Buy, The Hill, March 25, 2015

4. Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2013, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, accessed March 27, 2015

5. Breadwinner Moms, Pew Research Center, March 29, 2013

6. 30 Years of Tackling Hunger on a Bipartisan Basis Is in Danger of Failing This Fall, Center for American Progress, September 16, 2013

7. What $1.38 can buy, The Hill, March 25, 2015

8. Infographic: Stop Slashing SNAP, Center for American Progress, September 16, 2013