Dear anti-hunger advocate,

The White House administration just released their proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. We are worried. If enacted, the budget would cause tremendous harm to millions of low-income families throughout Chicago and Cook County and across the country. 

A few reasons we are worried:

• The proposal calls for a cut of $193 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next 10 years. At a time when more than 42 million Americans are at risk of hunger, including more than 1.5 million in Illinois, these cuts would push more struggling households into food insecurity.
• Households receiving SNAP overwhelmingly include children, older adults and people with disabilities. Every day, SNAP protects our neighbors from hunger – neighbors like James Poggi, a disabled veteran who depends on SNAP to help feed his young children.
• The budget proposal also reduces support for food banks by cutting The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) by $27 million, limiting a crucial source of food for communities nationwide.  

The Greater Chicago Food Depository and other nonprofit food banks are proud of our impact on hunger, but if SNAP were weakened, food banks and private charity would never be able to cover the need. In fact, SNAP provides nearly 10 times as many meals as the charitable food system.

If you believe that hunger shouldn’t exist in the United States, we encourage you to call your U.S. Representative and Senators NOW! 

To call your Members of Congress:

• You can find contact information for your U.S. Representative and your U.S. Senators at https://www.contactingcongress.org/.
• If you already know who your elected officials are you can call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
• When calling you can say:
• My name is [your full name]. I’m a constituent of [Representative Name/Senator Name], and I live in [your town]. I’m calling to ask [the Representative/the Senator] to oppose the significant cuts to SNAP and other important hunger fighting programs that were proposed in the White House budget. I am deeply concerned about the tremendous harm this could bring to the most vulnerable members of our community including children, older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities.

You can see our full statement on the White House proposed budget here.

Sincerely,

The Greater Chicago Food Depository