Impending Cuts to Anti-Poverty Food Program Will Cost Michigan $183 million and Bring Greater Food Insecurity to Families and Children

On November 1, 2013, the temporary boost to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is due to expire, taking a slice out of the food budgets of families, especially, low income families with children. In Michigan, one in six people receive SNAP benefits and will be affected. Such a cut is likely to result in an increase of families with children going hungry – what policy experts call “food insecurity.” Food insecurity is identified as “the lack of consistent access to adequate food” in a May 2013 report titled “Food Insecurity in Households with Children” from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.