A Place at the Table

Tonight I, along with many members of the congregation, viewed the movie, A Place at the Table.  If you have not seen this movie, I could not recommend it more strongly.  Its depiction of the complex state of hunger and food insecurity in America is eye opening.  It is also inspiring in its push for each of us to take an active role in bringing the issues of poverty and hunger to our state and federal representatives.

I want to thank our member, Cindy Levin, who is a tireless volunteer activist with Results (a grassroots organization working to alleviate poverty in America and across the globe) for providing the information below, which makes it so easy to write a letter to members of Congress.

It is most important to write to our Senators, McCaskill and Blunt, urging them not to pass a Farm Bill with 9 billion dollars worth of cuts to the SNAP Program. I urge everyone to take just a few moments to hand-write a letter to our senators, turning our awareness into action.

Take Action! Write Letters Urging Congress to Protect SNAP

1.     Introduce yourself to your representative or senator as a constituent and as a person who is concerned about poverty in America.

2.     Inform them that in 2012, more than 1 in 5 children in the U.S. were at risk of going to bed hungry every night (21.6 percent). Studies show that children who are regularly hungry suffer from weakened immune systems, slowed and abnormal growth, and anemia.

3.     Remind them that decades ago, our nation made ending hunger a priority by creating the Food Stamp Program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.

4.     Since then, SNAP has been critical in helping low-income families put food on the table and in reducing poverty. The U.S. Census reports that SNAP lifted 5 million people out of poverty in 2012, nearly half of them children. SNAP is also very effective, with a 96 percent accuracy rate.

5.     Explain that in light of this success, you are disappointed that Congress is looking to cut SNAP by nearly $9 billion over the next ten years.

6.     Tell them that we should be working harder to end hunger, not make it worse.

7.     Urge your representative/senator to talk to House/Senate leadership, telling leadership that they oppose cuts to SNAP and urging them to protect SNAP in the final Farm Bill.

8.     Thank them for their time and ask for a prompt response to your letter.

Note: To find contact information for congressional offices and the name of the agriculture aide, visit our Elected Officials page (http://capwiz.com/results/dbq/officials/). For directory assistance, you can also contact the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

To learn more about how you can help end poverty in America, visit www.results.org.