The Iowa Hunger Coalition is hosting a day of action to protect SNAP choice on Monday, March 24, from 11:00am-4:00pm at the Iowa State Capitol. We welcome you to join us for as long as you can whenever works best for you!
If you can’t travel to Des Moines on such short notice, you can email us your comments you’d like us to share with legislators at iowahungercoalition@gmail.com. We also encourage you to contact your House Representative as soon as possible and urge them to VOTE NO on HF 970!
Advocates will gather on the ground floor near the information desk before going up to speak with legislators and urging them to reject HF 970, which would impose sweeping restrictions on which foods people could purchase with SNAP benefits.
Section 2 of the bill states (emphasis added):
The department of health and human services shall request from the food and nutrition service of the United States department of agriculture to provide, for purposes of state administration of the supplement food and nutrition program, a modification to the eligible foods as defined in 7 C.F.R. §271.2 to only include healthy food based on necessary nutrition for good health, including but not limited to healthy grains, dairy, meat, eggs, peanut butter and nuts, pasta, rice, legumes, and fruits and vegetables.
If the state legislature didn’t want to play food police, it appears they are instead deputizing the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. Either way – it’s wrong…and also very unclear? But we do know this: Iowans should be trusted to make the best food choices for their families.
Research consistently shows (including a recent study by Iowa HHS), that people on SNAP want to eat more healthy food, but struggle affording it and having the time to prepare meals from scratch. That’s why we should be investing in programs like Double Up Food Bucks, which helps bring down the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables for SNAP participants and supports local farmers to boot.
And sure, Section 1 of HF 970 includes a $1 million appropriation for Double Up Food Bucks, but those funds are currently contingent upon USDA granting Iowa its SNAP food ban. Why would our legislature hold these funds hostage like this, especially when we have a separate bill with a clean $1 million appropriation for Double Up Food Bucks, HF 920 (which is literally sponsored by half the House Republican caucus)?
Trust us, we love Double Up Food Bucks. It’s been at the top of our legislative agenda for years. But $1 million to support the program will only go so far, and the food restrictions would negatively impact all 260,000 Iowans on SNAP going forward. That’s not a trade-off we’re willing to make.
Aside from the fact that this bill is just plain wrong, it would be bad for Iowa’s economy. One in three SNAP participants in Iowa lives in a county that borders another state. While we know that transportation barriers continues to exist for some folks on SNAP, others would certainly choose to do their shopping across state lines to avoid the government policing what’s in their grocery cart.
HF 970 is likely to come up for debate in the House very soon. That’s why we’re asking you to show up and speak out against this harmful bill on Monday.
Feel free to reach out with any questions at iowahungercoalition@gmail.com.