Montana food banks say loss of USDA food reports will make feeding hungry harder
Article by Vanessa Willardson
“‘For 30 years, this study—initially created by the Clinton administration as a means to support the increase of SNAP eligibility and benefit allotments—failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder,’ the Trump administration’s USDA wrote in a unsigned written statement on its website.
President and CEO of Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN) Gayle Carlson said she uses the reports to justify funding for the network and learn how much and where the state struggles with food insecurity.
‘The irony of all of this is, any time you write a proposal for funding for any federal grants at all, state or federal, as far as that goes, it’s all very data-driven. They want to know the statistics on the needs in your community. So, for them to eliminate that resource for us makes it even harder for us to demonstrate in our proposals for funding the needs that we have,’ said Carlson.”