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When someone asks us today if they will receive SNAP benefits for November, if they will have money to go grocery shopping for their family, there is no answer to that question. We don’t know how long this instability will continue and we don’t know if they’ll only get $16 for the entire month.

The White House and USDA are making the cruel decision to force 170,000 Mainers to choose between rent, medicine, heat, or food this holiday season. Many people are facing survival choices that we know will increase the need for emergency shelters at a time when capacity and budgets are stretched to their absolute limit.

This is unconscionable. It’s unacceptable that the current Administration has decided that feeding kids and families is less valuable than ballrooms. It’s unacceptable that people in power don’t give a damn about the people who are struggling in this country. The amount of money raised for that ballroom would pay for every pantry, emergency shelter, and domestic violence shelter in Maine. For years.

By refusing to pay SNAP benefits and fighting against feeding people every step of the way, the Administration is causing harm to our friends, family members, and next-door neighbors. People who work hard at their jobs (75%), grandparents and other older adults (43%), and households with kids (33%).

The Preble Street Food Security Hub and food pantries across the state are working nonstop to ensure that people in Maine don’t go to bed hungry tonight. But, all together, and combined with the tremendous community support that we’ve seen, we can’t even come close to replacing the food supply and dollar value that SNAP provides. SNAP is the biggest and most efficient tool to fight hunger. For every meal that food organizations like Preble Street provide, SNAP supplies nine.