More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Too often, investments in housing, affordable and quality healthcare, child and elder care, paid family and medical leave—all of which allow women and families to thrive—are the first to get cut when lawmakers talk of “cutting wasteful government spending” or “balancing the budget.”
President Joe Biden’s most recent budget proposal bucks that historical trend in a big way.
Extreme House Republicans have been dangling the threat of a government shutdown for months, playing politics with the lives of real people. In addition to being disruptive, wasteful and unnecessary, a government shutdown would have a deep and scarring impact on those facing food insecurity and poverty. This is not a game.
Resistance to safety net programs like the expanded child tax credit, SNAP and WIC is rooted in racist, misogynistic, tired and offensive stereotypes that blame and shame people, rather than help them when they need it most.
We were extremely disappointed by the decision of Mississippi and 14 other states last week to opt-out of a new summer EBT program that would have provided each eligible family with $40 per month per child during the summer to help cover the additional costs of food. For a mother working full-time at minimum wage (approximately $1,160 each month), that $40 could make a huge difference.
Once again, we are reminded that poverty, and all its consequences, are the result of policy choices. But when policy choices put an undue burden on our families, we know that it is our time to step into the gap.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week:the potential risk to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); France’s prime minister Élisabeth Borne resigns after less than two years in office; St. Paul, Minn., elects an historic all-women city council using ranked-choice voting; and more.
Leaders in Congress agreed on a topline figure to fund the government for the next fiscal year. But it is certainly no cause for celebration. The long-overdue agreement will continue most of last year’s levels, while providing enormous boosts for the Pentagon. With rising costs, last year’s funding levels are not enough for federal safety net programs to meet the needs of struggling Americans. Simply put, more people need more help and they will not get it. This is particularly true among single mothers—40 percent of whom needlessly struggle with food insecurity.
It’s all part of Republicans’ plan to both restrict abortion access and cut nutrition assistance from low-income mothers, infants and young children—creating a new wave of the feminization of poverty.
To help end world hunger, we must commit to a strategy that for too long has been ignored by global and U.S. leaders: Level the playing field for women and girls.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, is the nation’s most important food assistance programs for low-income Americans, and one of its most important anti-poverty measures.
Former Representative Leonor Sullivan (D-Mo.) was one of only 11 women in the House in 1953, and came to Congress determined to help her constituents. Sullivan’s legislative strategy, aided by growing urban, Democratic power in the House, eventually led Congress to approve food stamp “pilot projects,” which ultimately laid the groundwork for SNAP.
Nearly 9 million Americans who receive Social Security and SNAP. For those Americans, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment increases can be a blessing, providing extra cushion as prices go up. But they can also be a curse, taking away when SNAP benefits are needed the most.
Front and Center is a groundbreaking series created in partnership with the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which aims to put front and center the voices of Black women who are affected most by the often-abstract policies debated at the national level.
“The last time I applied for SNAP, they told me I made too much to qualify. So, I’m not making enough at work to be able to care for my people, and at the same time I can’t get food stamps? It doesn’t make any sense. … And what we do bring home goes toward rent. And just like the Rental Assistance Program, as soon as I’m making a little bit more money—boom, I’m paying the full amount of rent. So how can we ever save? How can we ever do better for ourselves?”
Across Africa, women working with The Hunger Project are making incredible strides to end hunger.
From learning how to make a new dish to sell through YouTube, to growing a garden full of vegetables, women are at the forefront of a world where hunger no longer exists.
