DeLauro warns of cutbacks in SNAP program if executive order is signed

ANSONIA — The talk was happy, the laughter loud and the food tasty, youngsters at Mead School said Wednesday.

But at the podium, the words were much more serious.

There, U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, warned that an executive order could be signed by President Donald Trump which would reduce the number of families eligible for help getting food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“When you think of summer, you think of children and their joy of playing, swimming, laughing,” DeLauro said. “They should not be ... worrying about not having lunch or where their next meal is coming from.”

She said her 3rd District, which includes most of the Valley, Milford, Orange, Stratford, New Haven, North Haven and Middletown, is “the most food insecure in the state.” More than 93,500 of her constituents struggle with hunger, including one in every seven children, DeLauro said.

The Trump administration is mulling a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule change that could eliminate SNAP benefits for some 3 million people, including 500,000 children across the country. That would happen if the proposal to eliminate people from the SNAP program who already receive food assistance from their state takes effect.

The rule change would allow any child whose family is eliminated to buy school lunches at a reduced rate. The order is on hold for a 60-day period in which comments can be filed with the USDA.

“What they could not do in the Farm Bill we passed, they are trying to do in the proposed rule changes,” DeLauro said.

Whatever happens, the effect won’t be felt at lunchtime by Ansonia students during the next few school years.

Before the 2018-19 school year,...

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