While many of us will be looking at or talking about the solar eclipse today, a group of religious anti-hunger activists are trying to draw the public's attention elsewhere. As USA Today reported on Friday, the advocates for government food aid are going hungry today to protest the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to nutritional assistance programs for the poor.
“We continue to fast and pray on the 21st of each month throughout this 115th Congress through the end of 2018,” the advocacy group Bread for the World explains on its website. “We chose the 21st of the month because that is the day when SNAP (formerly food stamps) benefits for most families run out. It is the hungriest week of the month.”
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Trump’s proposed budget would cut more than $193 billion from federal SNAP funding over the next 10 years. The cuts would mean that the $252 that the average SNAP household gets each month would be reduced to $173.
In all, the government will spend about $66 billion this year providing SNAP benefits to some 21 million households, or 42.5 million people.
