Safeway Workers School Congress on Hunger

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)It’s not easy living on thirty dollar’s worth of groceries a week. That’s what some two dozen members of Congress learned when they stopped by a Safeway – staffed by UFCW Local 400 members -- this week in Washington as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Challenge. The 26 lawmakers were participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Challenge to raise awareness of the devastating effects of House Republican cuts to the SNAP. “Year in and year out, the SNAP/Food Stamp program proves itself an unqualified success in reducing hunger, alleviating poverty and stimulating the economy,” said Local 400 President Mark Federici. “That’s why we are deeply dismayed that the Senate version of the Farm Bill re-authorization cuts SNAP benefits for approximately 500,000 households, and outraged that the House version of the legislation would completely eliminate benefits for two million low-income families. This would be bad enough under any circumstances, but it’s even worse coming at a time when far too many Americans are unemployed and our economic recovery is still shaky.” The members of Congress discovered that staples like milk and butter were out of the question when keeping to the food stamp program’s strict budget.  “When I was a young, single mother, I was on public assistance,” said Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) in an online blog post. “It was a bridge over troubled water, and without it, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I spent hours debating what to buy and what to skip, all the while keeping my sons in my mind.” - Adapted from a report on the UFCW 400 website