SNAP may become the sound of hunger

By Alfred P. Doblin

The fancy term is “food insecurity.” The realistic one: “going hungry.”

Unless there is a deus ex machina intervention, an estimated 42 million people in America will face that prospect if funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) expires on November 1.

Funding for SNAP, which is more commonly known as food stamps, is caught in a nasty web of politics. Wasn’t it Charlotte in a children’s book who wrote in her web, “Some pig,” referring to an actual hog? Here, it would be an appropriate label for the maker of the web, the body politic.

There is, no doubt, room for reform within SNAP, but funding is not ending because of that. SNAP has become a bargaining chip in Congress. Hungry people aren’t chips. Hungry people are people, like you and me. In most cases, fortune has not been kind to them and the cessation of SNAP funding will affect children, people with disabilities, the elderly, and many veterans and their families.

That’s the thing about webs – they do not separate the wheat from the chaff. Everything is trapped.

Former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, a man I much admire, used to speak about the “politics of inclusion.” It seems quaint today when politics has become a blood sport. We desperately need “policies of humanity.”

That sounds equally quaint, or worse, a little self-righteous. That is not my aim. At some point, we must recognize that everyday Americans are not poker chips to be wagered in a high-stakes game of chance.

When did we become such a people? Perhaps, a better question is when were we not so cruel?

It is not yet December and I hear this familiar exchange:

“‘…a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?’

‘Nothing!’ Scrooge replied.”

Yes, Dickens had a way of making a point. The “Poor,” “Want,” and “Abundance” are all capitalized. There was a time when after hearing that exchange, a reader would be taken aback by Scrooge’s indifference. Now, I am not so sure.

Elected officials have a responsibility to be good stewards of the public’s money. But no one regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum believe the funding for SNAP has anything to do with “undeserving” people gaming the system.

I don’t come from a moneyed background. I grew up in Lindenhurst, Long Island. It was a working-class and middle-class place in the 1950s and 60s. My family was not wealthy, but we had dinner every night. There was always enough money for food.

That is not the case in many households, today. Mother Teresa would rail against people who criticized her for feeding the poor rather than focusing on teaching them ways to make a living. She would respond that her mission was to ensure that no one went hungry; if you want to teach a man to fish, you have to feed him first so he can learn the skill.

Both are important, but the Working Poor are as real today as the Poor was real in Dickens’ time.

There’s a lot of national conversation about making America a Christian nation. I’m not sure what that means. Matthew 25:31-46 is clear about what happens to people who look the other way when faced with hunger. “And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew is not suggesting the people who ignore Want will spend eternity in an adult community in Boca.

It makes we wonder how anyone in government cannot be alarmed by what is happening. Sharing food is the key tenet of hospitality. All the major faiths share an understanding and a reverence for the sharing of food, and at times, abstaining from food.

Food is life. You cannot be pro-life and pro-hunger. It’s impossible.

Scrooge would have said no one goes hungry in Victorian England. Bah, humbug. No one goes hungry in 21st century America? Humbug and shame.

Good people will donate to food pantries. Charities will do all they can. And in some cases, neighbors will see another neighbor struggling and bring a casserole to their door or treat them to a bag of groceries.

The thing is when it comes to stopping hunger, we can never do enough. The thing is at this moment in America, all we do is too little.

Until next time, Alfred with a P