Fruit is displayed at an Anchorage grocery store. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Growing up as a kid in Alaska, the only source of food I could rely on and look forward to came from food stamps. It is heartbreaking to see that has not changed for many children and families today. This crisis will remain a dark stain for our state if Senators Murkowski and Sullivan stand by and allow Congress to pass extreme cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits to keep the federal government funded.
Too many lives are at stake. For months, at least 12,000 Alaskans have struggled just to access food assistance due to a years-long backlog at the state Division of Public Assistance ( they just recently put out a new application in early January , but so many families are still lost in the backlog issue), with some families even going into debt to feed their kids because they couldn’t access crucial food stamps. It’s not so far-fetched to believe how many people are on the brink when our grocery prices go viral for their sheer expense. Now imagine the effect of cuts at the federal level to these programs that my siblings, friends and more in our community desperately depend on, just to get on even footing to survive.