Feeding Indiana’s Hungry Statement On The Release Of The President’s Fiscal Year 2021 Budget

(Indianapolis, Ind.) - More than 37 million people across the country, including more than 887,000 Hoosiers, struggle to put food on the table. Feeding Indiana’s Hungry understands the importance of ensuring our decision-makers continue to strengthen the nation’s hunger-relief and anti-poverty programs for those who have fallen on hard times. Unfortunately, the fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget proposed by the Administration jeopardizes funding for those programs, putting the health and well-being of vulnerable populations at risk.

Feeding Indiana’s Hungry is deeply disappointed by the budget’s severe proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the first line of defense against hunger for millions of people who are low-income. The massive proposed cuts come amid a series of proposed SNAP rule changes that would also drive up rates of hunger across the U.S., including a rule that is expected to slash access to food assistance for nearly 700,000 individuals experiencing difficulty with finding stable, adequate employment.

Additionally, the President’s budget revives an ill-informed call to replace some SNAP benefits with so-called ‘harvest boxes’ filled with pre-packaged, standardized food of inconsistent nutritional quality. The food boxes would undercut the impact of SNAP by making the program more costly and administratively burdensome, leaving more people without food in their pantries.

Feeding Indiana’s Hungry knows that the implementation of the budget’s proposed program changes and cuts would result in gaping holes in federal food assistance that private charity would not be able to fill. The diminished SNAP funding alone would create an increase in demand that the charitable sector would not be able to meet. In fact, for each meal the Feeding America network of 200 member food banks and 60,000 partner pantries and meal programs provides, SNAP provides nine.

As it stands, this proposed budget is devastating for children, seniors, hard-working families, and so many others, in our community and elsewhere, striving to make ends meet. As Congress prepares for its budget process, Feeding Indiana’s Hungry urges both Congress and the Administration to prioritize maintaining strong hunger-relief and anti-poverty programs for households working to get back on their feet.

About Feeding Indiana’s Hungry
Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, Inc. is the statewide association of Feeding America affiliated food banks. Member food banks include:

• Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Merrillville
• Food Bank of Northern Indiana, South Bend
• Food Finders Food Bank, Inc., Lafayette
• Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana, Ft. Wayne
• Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Inc., Muncie
• Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank, Terre Haute
• Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Indianapolis
• Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Bloomington
• Tri-State Food Bank, Inc., Evansville
• Dare to Care Food Bank, Louisville, KY
• Freestore Foodbank, Cincinnati,