Beginning today, more than four million Californians who receive food stamps will have to get by on less, as a federal stimulus boost to the program ends.
Jessica Bartholow with the Western Center on Law and Poverty said a family of four getting by on food stamps will have to get by with $36 a month less.
“These cuts will just make it that much harder to purchase healthy diets and to prevent hunger,” Bartholow said.
Advocates for low-income Californians said more than sixty percent of food stamp recipients work. Cristina Cañaveral with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth said the working poor can’t survive on their paychecks alone.
“Minimum wage for someone that maybe is only working 30 hours per week, is still not going to be able to put food on the table and pay rent,” Cañaveral explained.
A farm bill from the Republican-controlled House would cut food stamps by four billion dollars annually. A Senate bill would reduce the program by one-tenth as much.
