The Food Bank of the Albemarle issued a statement on Wednesday that “strongly supports” the 15 percent benefit increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) included in the updated HEROES Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had instructed aides to stop negotiating with Democratic leaders in the House on another round of COVID-19 relief until after the election.
He then later reversed course and said Congress should pass smaller bills that specifically targeted needs such as more stimulus checks and and an airline bailout .
The agency based in Elizabeth City covers a 15-county service area in northeast North Carolina, handling collection and distribution of food and grocery items to 100 hunger-relief partners operating 155 unique programs.
More from the Food Bank of the Albemarle statement:
This past year, Food Bank of the Albemarle and the rest of Feeding America’s network of 200 food banks and 60,000 partner food pantries and meal programs have served more than five billion meals to our neighbors in need. Yet, for every meal Feeding America provides, SNAP provides nine.
As our nation’s public health and economic crises continue with no end in sight, investing in SNAP is an efficient and cost-effective way to help families keep their pantries full while also stimulating economic activity in northeastern North Carolina and elsewhere.
In addition, Food Bank of the Albemarle is grateful that the recently introduced bill invests an additional $450 million to help food banks meet the growing need for food assistance through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
Since the onset of COVID-19, the Feeding America network has reported, on average, an increase in demand of about 60 percent. As the capacity of food banks becomes more stretched than ever, we are pleased that the bill strengthens our ability to do what we do best: feed families. Additionally, we support the bill’s inclusion of additional vital investments in and improvements to SNAP, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), child nutrition programs, and school and child care programs to help households facing hardship.
Every day, Food Bank of the Albemarle helps families in our community have enough to eat, but we can’t meet the need alone. As people across the country face the highest food prices in 50 years and as unemployment benefit claims surpass 50 million, strong investments in both federal nutrition programs and the charitable sector are essential so families do not have to choose between putting food on the table and paying their rent.
More than ever, we need our lawmakers to come together and pass a bill that strengthens every tool at our disposal to significantly curb hunger in our country. The federal nutrition provisions in this proposed bill are a critical step in that direction.
The Food Bank of the Albemarle serves Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, Martin, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties.
