Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. On Thursday, I will join my colleague Representative Barbara Lee, Catholic Charities USA, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the National Council of Churches, and several other Congress Members that my colleague mentioned to participate in the Food Stamp Challenge, an effort to draw attention to the crisis of hunger in America.
As part of the challenge, participants will eat on the average SNAP allotment. That's what we call it now. There's no more food stamps. Now people get a card that they can actually use to charge the food. But we'll eat on the average SNAP allotment of $1.50 per meal for a week.
Having participated in this event in the past, I know it is extremely difficult to eat a healthy diet under such strict budgetary guidelines. Nevertheless, SNAP is the difference between chronic hunger and a basic meal for 45 million Americans.
Now, obviously, that means I'm going to give up any Starbucks coffee. But even the $1 coffee that I was able to buy in the cloakroom just before I came out here is something that will be just too precious to spend. That's almost a whole meal's worth just to buy that cup of coffee.
In 2010, 14.5 percent of American households were food insecure, meaning they lacked the capacity to put enough food on their tables. They relied on nutrition programs like SNAP to make ends meet.
In this, the wealthiest country in the world, one out of four American children is now food insecure, meaning there are nights that they go to sleep hungry. It really is a moral issue, as my colleague pointed out.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--that's SNAP--provides an essential safety net for American families. More than half of SNAP recipients are children.
The Republican budget passed in the House--with no Democratic support, I might add--would cut $127 billion from SNAP over the next decade, a 20 percent cut. The House Agriculture appropriations bill--passed, again, with no Democratic support--would also cut the SNAP program.
You know, these may be just numbers, $127 billion here and several billion dollars there, but their effects are very real for people across the country. I recently received dozens of messages on paper plates from EZRA Multi-Service Center in Chicago. They rely on SNAP to make ends meet, and they fear the repercussions of further cuts. The plates answer the question: What would happen to you if SNAP benefits are cut?
Heather C. in Chicago said that it's already hard enough to feed her children as it is, and cutting SNAP would mean her kids would suffer. She says, ``My food stamps stretch out for about 2 weeks out of the month, so if I didn't have them, then it would cost me an extra $250 a month to feed my children. Food these days is so expensive, and the more help we can get to feed our kids the better.''
And, by the way, most of the people on the SNAP program are on just for a temporary amount of time, just like the Congresswoman said, to bridge a gap when they're really in need.
Jack K. worked for decades as a taxicab driver but retired with very little wealth. He says now, ``I now live in subsidized housing and depend upon soup kitchens and food pantries for food.''
An anonymous client from Chicago writes that if SNAP benefits are cut, ``it would be impossible for me to feed my four children every day. It's bad enough that because of this recession there's a lack of jobs. That alone makes it difficult to provide for them. These programs give people the temporary help they need to be okay until a job is obtained. Please take into consideration the children who depend on their parents for survival.''
One commenter said she needs the program because she lost her life savings to cover medical costs which continue to this day. ``Instead of being middle class, I am now living below the poverty level,'' she says. ``Without assistance, I would be back in a homeless shelter. As it is now, I am unable to afford utilities, between my rent and medical expenses.''
And Robert B. in Chicago said the bad economy has left him in long-term unemployment. ``I lost everything. If my benefits were cut, I wouldn't eat for awhile.''
We have options in this wealthiest country in the world. For example, I've introduced H.R. 1124, the Fairness in Taxation Act, which would raise revenues by increasing tax rates on the 1 percent richest Americans. Income over $1 million a year would be taxed at 45 percent, moving up to 49 percent for income over $1 billion. And, by the way, that's lower than during the Reagan years.
So I invite my colleagues to join me in the Food Stamp Challenge and learn, just even for a week, what it's like to live on $1.50 a meal.