Community responds to proposed SNAP cuts

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) -A chance to tell their stories and connect as a community, community members and nonprofits met with state officials Monday to discuss proposed cuts to federal food programs.

“We had (SNAP) when my kids were young, and I’m not ashamed to say that at all,” said Gail Donkers, a Faribault farmer. ”We were starting a business and I worked full-time off the farm and my husband was farming probably a hundred hours a week if not more and I now have three college graduates and a grandson. And I’m very proud that we received that, it meant so much to our family at that time.”

Proposed federal cuts would see a 25-percent cut to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits, leaving Minnesota with a cost of $220-million to foot the bill themselves, a number that state officials say isn’t possible to reach within the state budget.

That means that cuts are more than likely coming to the program itself.

“That would require us to either reduce the number of people that are available to receive SNAP or make other policy changes which would have a dramatic impact on the number of people that are participating in the program or the types of people that could participate in the program,” said Tikki Brown with the Department of Children, Youth & Families.

SNAP is a program that helps low-income families afford access to healthy food, and is a major resource for families using things like area food shelves who themselves report an increasing demand for affordable food in the community.

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