What would you do if your grocery budget was slashed — not by a few dollars but enough to force you to choose between food and rent, food and a utility bill, food or transportation to work? What if you got sick and could not afford a doctor visit or a prescription you were given? These are not hypothetical questions for families I see each week. They are real trade-offs and the real consequences of the cuts Congress is considering to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, and Medicaid.
As the manager of St. Anthony’s Food Pantry in Worcester, each week I see working families or retirees who have worked their whole lives but cannot get ahead of the cost of living. They rely on programs like SNAP and Medicaid to help make ends meet. These programs are often the thin line between stability and crisis.
Without SNAP, many would have to skip meals or go hungry just to get through the month. Without Medicaid, they would delay care, omit essential medications to treat chronic conditions, or go without essential services to maintain optimal health. These proposals by Congress are not just bad policy, they are a moral failure. Proposed cuts to SNAP would hurt more than 1 million of our most vulnerable Massachusetts residents who rely on the program to keep food on the table, including children, people with a disability and seniors…