As students at Marshall University, we’ve spent the past semester on a project to explore the ways hunger affects the greater Huntington area. Food insecurity is a major issue in Huntington, and the Food Research Action Center reports that West Virginia, as a state, has the third highest food hardship rate in the country. Our work culminated in a community forum July 26, where we brought together local non-profit leaders, policy experts and community members for a conversation about how food insecurity impacts some of our most vulnerable populations, including children, seniors and college students. 

This discussion came at an especially critical time. In the next couple months, Congress will be voting on a final Farm Bill, legislation that is renewed every five years and funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, our nation’s most important anti-hunger program. SNAP is particularly important to West Virginia; it helps nearly one in five people in our state—340,000 in total —put food on the table. That includes over 17,000 here in Cabell County. 

Any cuts or harmful changes to SNAP in the Farm Bill would be a major blow to the fight against hunger in Huntington and throughout West Virginia. Unfortunately, in June, the U.S. House passed a version of the Farm Bill that includes just such cuts, taking critical food assistance away from two million Americans, including thousands of West Virginians. 

The House Farm Bill makes these cuts by eliminating SNAP benefits for people who don’t prove every month that they work at least 20 hours a week or qualify for an exemption. It would then use this money to create a huge bureaucracy to offer job training and education, which, at $30 per person per month, is woefully underfunded, and flies in the face of evidence about how to get people good paying jobs. 

These changes to SNAP in the Farm Bill would particularly harm the groups we focused on in our community forum. SNAP isn’t just an important anti-hunger program; it’s also one of the best anti-poverty tools we have, especially for families with children. By providing families with assistance that helps them meet their basic needs, SNAP keeps nearly 24,000 West Virginia children out of poverty. Cuts to SNAP mean more parents will struggle to make sure their children have enough to eat. 

SNAP also helps millions of low-income seniors in West Virginia and nationwide. Almost five million seniors throughout the country participate in SNAP, including nearly 35,000 in our state. For these seniors, who often live on fixed incomes and have major financial responsibilities like caring for grandchildren, SNAP is a crucial lifeline. Cutting the program would make it even harder for these members of our community to make ends meet. 

There’s also growing evidence that shows food insecurity is a major crisis among our peers: college students. One recent study found 36 percent of university students and 42 percent of community college students experienced food insecurity—meaning they struggled to find and afford enough to eat—at some point over a 30-day period. Harmful cuts and changes to SNAP will place an added burden on these students, one they shouldn’t have to face as they try to get an education and start their careers. The good news is the senate also passed a version of the Farm Bill in June. Unlike the partisan House bill, the senate farm bill protects and strengthens SNAP. It also builds on the strong history of SNAP supporting work by dedicating more funds for investing in effective job training that are developed to help participants build the skills they need to get better paying jobs. We thank both Senators Manchin and Capito for their support of this strong, bipartisan bill. As Congress works to produce a final version of the Farm Bill, we need to make sure our representatives understand the importance that SNAP plays in our communities and that they vote to protect it. 

“We were inspired to pursue our project on food insecurity once we began to study the magnitude of the issue, and the severe consequences it has on vulnerable populations such as children and seniors,” Lydia Gray, a Marshall social work student, said. “The implications of practice are limitless for social workers, but we need involvement and attention from Congress.”

It’s time for our political leaders to take this problem seriously and address it, not advance proposals that would make the hunger crisis in West Virginia even worse.

Seth DiStefano is Policy Outreach Director for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. A native of Randolph County, WV, he is a graduate of Tygarts Valley High School and holds a B.A in Liberal Arts and Sciences from West Virginia University.