1. Protecting Tennessee’s Children: SNAP
Keith Barnes
Nutrition Advocate Tennessee Justice Center
Kathy Saile
Director for Government Affairs
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Ana Hicks
State Strategies Manager in the Food Assistance Division
May 24, 2017

4. SNAP proposal in President’s budget would…
Shift $116 billion in SNAP benefit costs to states.
Abandon the national commitment to provide low-income Americans a SNAP benefit sufficient to afford a basic diet.
Force states to time-limit food assistance to unemployed individuals who live in high-unemployment areas.
Eliminate a state option that supports working families and addresses a benefit cliff.  
Cut benefits to the elderly and people with disabilities and penalize large families.

5. Two legislative tracks to follow on SNAP
FY18 Budget
2018 Farm Bill
President’s budget proposes cuts to USDA including specific SNAP cuts.
House and Senate plan to begin working on budget resolutions in fall?
Could include reconciliation instructions to Agriculture Committees (i.e., require fast-track cuts) .
Field hearings held in February in KS and on May 6 in MI.
Ag Committee members will host in-district meetings on Farm Bill issues.
Committees will hold hearings on Farm Bill and begin drafting legislation in fall and early 2018.
Hearings, debate and votes likely throughout 2018.

6. SNAP Works for Families
Helps over 40 million low-income Americans
Helps over 20 million kids each month (that’s 1 in 4 children!)
SNAP kept 4.9 million children out of poverty
SNAP lifted 2.1 million children out of deep poverty

7. SNAP Has Long-Term Positive Impact for Children

8. Proposed Cuts to SNAP will Harm Tennessee Families
The President’s proposal abandons the American commitment to ensure no child goes hungry in this country.
The budget would shift $418 million in benefit costs to Tennessee in 2023 alone and $2.9 billion over ten years.

9. In Tennessee, nearly half of all SNAP participants are children.
SNAP serves many groups, but no one benefits more from SNAP than children in our state. In fact, children receive nearly $800mil in SNAP assistance. That’s more than twice the federal funding that supports school meal programs. SNAP lifts an estimated 116,000 children out of poverty.

10. Child Food Insecurity in Tennessee
Conditions are improving. According to Feeding America, child food insecurity have fallen in recent years. However, an unacceptably high number of children still face the threat of hunger in our state. By the most recent estimate, there are over 315,000 food insecure children in our state.
It’s important to note that food insecurity is not evenly distributed across Tennessee. 77 of our 95 counties have food insecurity rates higher than the state average (91 are above the national average). Rural areas of the state, especially Appalachia and West Tennessee are especially bad off.

11. Looking from the other direction,
Looking from the other direction, . Overall about one in three kids in Tennessee gets SNAP. Among the youngest children that figure goes up to nearly half.

12. Trends in Participation
SNAP participation among children, and everyone else, has finally started to taper off, presumably thanks to improving economic conditions. In fact, we are on track to reach pre-Recession participation rates this year. However, participation remains extremely high and is a continuation of a trend that began nearly two decades ago.
Importantly, you can only get SNAP if you qualify. Tennessee has some of the narrowest eligibility standards in the nation, and very little has changed for families with children that would cause a big increase like this. A household of 4 without a member who is 60+ or adult with a disability CANNOT qualify if they have an annual income over $31,596/year. Beyond a home and a vehicle, that same household CANNOT qualify if they have more than $2,250 in assets.
All of that is to say that there are a lot of folks including hundreds of thousands of Tennessee children who would not do well under proposed cuts.

13. SNAP Participation by County
The impact of cuts will be felt differently among children across the state. Only about 5% of kids in Williamson County could be impacted while well over half of kids in Lake County. Obviously, wherever you live, if you are having food taken off your plate, that is not a good thing.

14. Universal Free School Meals… or Not
Tennessee has enjoyed one of the highest adoption rates of the new Community Eligibility Provision, or universal free meals, in the nation, ranking 7th in the nation for the school year.
CEP has made a big difference in promoting access to nutrition food even in areas that already had high free meal participation. Metro Nashville Public Schools, a district that already had very high free meal participation (67%) , saw a 28% increase in breakfast and lunch participation after adopting CEP. Limiting CEP even indirectly will have major consequences for the 909 schools currently participating in CEP and the over 400,000 children they serve.

15. Tools for Organizations
Children’s landing page
Branded and unbranded fact sheets and shareable images
Monday, Wednesday and Friday Facebook children’s posts at 2:30 pm CDT
Please let us know what you need
TJC is particularly concerned about how rural communities are disproportionately impacted by a lot of these changes. Please let Anna Walton know if you want to get more involved with our rural team.

16. How to Get Involved Join our email list
Set up constituent meetings with your representative and senators for Memorial recess May 29-June 2
Senators are only meeting with organizations

17. For your representative: Call 1-866-426-2631
For your representative: Call Then enter your zip code to be connected to your House member.

18. Children’s Health Team
Kinika Young,
Director of Children’s Health
Anna Walton,
Health Action Associate
De Vann Sago, King Child Health Fellow

19. Questions?