USDA SNAP Proposal Arrives as WNY Food Pantries Strain — EEW Magazine

USDA estimates its Nov. 10 proposal would end food assistance for 6.3 million people by 2029. The public has until Dec. 10 to weigh in. By EEW Magazine Online Editors Bridget Majka runs a food pantry and a soup kitchen in Dunkirk, New York, and this fall she watched the pantry shelves go nearly bare. The Chautauqua County Rural Ministry, where Majka is executive director, told its neighbors in a Facebook post that it was "facing a critical food shortage," the Post-Journal of Jamestown reported Nov. 2. On one day during the surge, the ministry fed 40 families from its pantry, served 120 lunches and sent out 100 takeout dinners. Twenty of the people at lunch had never come before. As pantries like hers work to keep up, a federal proposal could reach the families in their lines. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Nov. 10 proposed a rule that would narrow who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.