Reflect: SNAP assists low-income individuals and families with getting the nutritional food that they need. Many Americans rely on food stamps to keep food on their tables. After three months have passed if the recipient isn't employed or in a job-training program then they cannot receive an extension. This is a short amount of time to give people to find work, particularly when it is a struggle for some college graduates to find employment.
I spent a semester volunteering at a foster care agency where one of the children in care was also a teen mom who was pregnant with her second child. As I was reading about the new restrictions on food stamps I thought of her. I was taken back to the time I spent at the agency researching SNAP to find out if she was eligible for the program. At the time she was, but I wonder if she would still qualify or if she would now struggle even more to care for her two children. She was still in high school and balancing her education with her family was challenging for her. If she had had to also be working or be in a training program she wouldn't have had time to help care for her children. I can't help but think of all the people that this cut will affect and wonder how these people did not enter the minds of every Representative as they were voting on the bill. Surely if they had, the bill would not have been passed. We have enough people living in poverty in this country and I fear that this new legislation will only cause that number to rise.
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