Charities will bear the brunt of cuts to food programs

http://thegrio.com/2013/05/17/severe-cuts-to-food-programs-in-house-farm-bill-would-increase-need-overwhelm-charities/

As a result of the cuts, 2 million individuals would lose their SNAP benefits entirely, 210,000 children would lose access to free school meals, and 850,000 households would see their SNAP benefits cut dramatically by an average $90 per month. The bill would intensely restrict states’ flexibility in how they administer SNAP in coordination with other low-income support programs like heating assistance (LIHEAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

Feeding America estimates that these cuts would amount to more than 8 billion lost meals for struggling families.

If divided evenly across Feeding America’s national network of food banks, every food bank would need to provide an additional 4 million meals each year for the next ten years, and that is just not possible. There is no way that charity would be able to make up the difference. We are already stretched thin meeting sustained high need in the wake of the recession. We simply do not have the resources to prevent hunger for the millions of people who would be impacted by these cuts – the low-income working families, seniors, children, and individuals struggling to get by.