The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly and still popularly known as the Food Stamp program, provides financial assistance for purchasing food to low- and no-income people living in the U.S. It is a federal aid program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, though benefits are distributed by individual U.S. states. The allocation for this program is one of the sections of the five-year reauthorization of the Farm Bill currently in conference committee.

The Senate passed its comprehensive Farm Bill in the early summer, while the House passed its farm policy and food aid proposals in two separate measures after a large bloc of conservative lawmakers insisted on splitting the legislation apart. The legislation will be stitched together for the sake of a House-Senate compromise through the working of the Conference Committee.

The biggest issue of contention will be funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Senate measure would cut about $4 billion in funding for the program over the next decade, while the House version would slash nearly $40 billion.

Currently, 45.7 million Americans benefit from this safety net.  Forty-seven percent are children. For low-income families, this assistance stretches what they earn and helps prevent hunger and food insecurity. Although this program is meant to be supplemental, for many it is the entire food budget each month. In Ohio, benefits are electronic for approved foods by the US Department of Agriculture. Being eligible for SNAP frees up money for other pressing needs. More than 1.8 million Ohioans receive food stamps, with the average individual benefit about $132 a month. Benefits were just cut this month due to the removal of the recession supplement.

We are all experiencing increased demand on food pantries, soup kitchens and parish holiday food basket programs. The number of people living in poverty has grown. Single adults without dependents are not eligible. Charity is not going to fill in the gap.

In order to understand the issue from the standpoint of the low-income family, a Food Stamp Challenge has been issued. Catholic Charities is one of the sponsoring organizations. We hope, that if we spend one week trying to live on the average allotment ($29.27 per week or $1.40 per meal), we will be better advocates for the necessity of this program at the best funding levels possible.

In the story of the Last Judgment, Jesus teaches that one of the fundamental measures of our lives will be how we cared for people in need: "For I was hungry and you gave me food." (Mt 25:35)

 It is a scandal that there is still hunger and malnutrition in the world. It is not just a question of responding to immediate emergencies, but of addressing together, in all areas, a problem that challenges our personal and social conscience, to achieve a just and lasting solution.

- Pope Francis' Message for World Food Day, Oct. 16, 2013

We challenge you to participate in this food challenge. Click here to read more and see the guidelines. Please pray in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need this holiday season. And then let your voice be heard on this important issue!

Forty-one House and Senate lawmakers have been assigned to the conference committee, a group that represents myriad partisan, ideological, geographic, and political turf priorities. Most of the members are from the House and Senate Agriculture committees, with others appointed by party leaders. A handful of the House members also come from the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs committees, because the far-reaching Farm Bill deals in part with tax policy and foreign aid. Senator Brown and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge are on the Conference Committee. When this committee hammers out a compromise bill, it will have to go before both houses for approval.