Madison, WI – As SNAP benefits run out across Wisconsin, leaving families searching for support, Wisconsin State Representatives Robyn Vining (AD-13), Jenna Jacobson (AD-50), and State Senator Brad Pfaff (SD-32) held a press conference this morning to call attention to the consequences of Republican budget cuts that have worsened food insecurity across the state.
During budget negotiations, Governor Evers included $30 million for the Food Security Grant Program, $147 million for Healthy School Meals, and $1.5 million for the Tribal Food Security Program, all of which were slashed by the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee. Democrats then fought to restore the funding through budget amendments, which Republicans voted down.
At today’s press conference, the legislators shared how SNAP has impacted their own lives and renewed calls to protect critical food assistance programs, while helping our family farmers.
Representative Robyn Vining made the following comment on her personal experience with SNAP:
“I am State Representative Robyn Vining and my family has also been a family that has relied on food assistance. Due to unexpected circumstances, there was a time that my husband and I relied on food assistance to feed our children. And I cannot, in this moment, in the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world, believe that we have national leadership that is refusing to feed Wisconsinites, and refusing to feed Wisconsin children. Stories like mine are common – especially when everything from housing and groceries to childcare and healthcare costs way too much and are only getting more expensive.”
Representative Jenna Jacobson made the following comments on the consequences of SNAP benefit cuts for Wisconsin families:
“It’s with these real, lived experiences that I proudly fought for and voted for food assistance programs in this most recent budget process — long before the government shutdown was even on our collective radars. Because in the dairy state, feeding people is a Wisconsin value. Programs that would not only help feed our neighbors — many of them being children and seniors – but that would also support Wisconsin farmers and our agriculture industry that’s been ravaged by federal chaos in their own right. But unfortunately many of these programs that would have been real handy to count on in moments of crisis like this one, were stripped from the budget by the Joint Finance Committee. And despite our attempts to introduce them as standalone amendments, they were voted down, again, by Republican majorities.”
Senator Brad Pfaff made the following comment during the press conference on Democratic efforts to fund Wisconsin’s food programs :
“Surely, at a time when so many Wisconsinites are facing uncertainty about where they get their next meal, we should be able to agree that providing free healthy meals to every student in Wisconsin should be a priority of the legislature, right? Think again. Every single one of these measures were either completely eliminated, as in the case of the Farm to Fork Program, severely cut by the Republican-controlled legislature, which took $20 million out of Food Security Grants. Or, in the case of free healthy meals, which wasn’t even given a hearing.”
