Trump's 'MAHA' Lie
The administration wants to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ So why did they cut SNAP benefits for 770,000 children?
More than 776,000 children have lost SNAP benefits since Congress passed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ – and that’s just in the 12 states that report age-specific data.
When including other states, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the number of children nationally who are no longer on SNAP could be as high as 1 million.
SNAP is one of the most effective investments we can make in children and families. Research shows that children who have access to SNAP in early childhood, or whose parents received SNAP during pregnancy, have better birth and health outcomes and are more likely to be food secure as adults.
But it doesn’t end there: the loss of SNAP benefits creates additional barriers for low-income children attempting to qualify for other essential nutrition programs, such as free school lunches and WIC. These cuts can even make it harder for entire schools to offer free meals through the Community Eligibility Provision by reducing the number of students directly certified through SNAP.
When children are not healthy, this affects them today, and it affects them throughout their lifetimes. — Mariana Chiltons, expert in child hunger at the University of Massachusetts
Research shows that children who receive SNAP benefits are healthier, have better academic outcomes, and have better mental health as teenagers, and isn’t that exactly what the Trump administration claims it wants?
If they really want America to be healthier, they should all be on board with making sure children have the food they need to grow and thrive.
Instead, the politicians who promised to make America healthier are doing the opposite. They're making it harder to put food on the table.
We can't ignore the gap between what they're saying and what's actually happening. We need to talk with our friends, families, and neighbors about the real impact of these cuts and the hypocrisy of their ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda.