Foodlink President & CEO Julia Tedesco joined Sen. Chuck Schumer and local faith leaders at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester on Tuesday to speak out against harmful, proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

By a one-vote margin, the House passed a bill last week that would slash nearly $300 billion from SNAP over the next decade. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Sen. Schumer and his colleagues are expected to negotiate a new version of the bill.

More than 155,000 residents in Foodlink’s 10-county service area receive SNAP benefits, according to the latest caseload statistics from the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. New data also shows food insecurity on the rise, with a local food insecurity rate of 12.8% — the equivalent of 160,000 people.

PETITION: Tell Congress to oppose cuts to federal nutrition programs

“The devastating SNAP cuts proposed in the House bill will take away billions of meals for some of our nation’s most vulnerable residents — and impact the health of our seniors, educational opportunities for our youth and the economic prosperity of our country,” Tedesco said. “At a time when food-insecurity rates are high and visits to local food pantries spiked 40% last year, Foodlink and our partners simply cannot fill the gap with a SNAP reduction of this magnitude. We call on Congress to oppose these cuts to ensure the health and wellbeing of our neighbors during these challenging times.”

FACEBOOK: View more photos from the media event with Sen. Schumer

Local faith leaders speaking out against the proposed SNAP cuts on Tuesday included: Pastor Tedd Pullano of Third Presbyterian Church, Pastor Doug Stewart of The Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Sister Beth LeValley of Sisters of St. Joseph, and Father Bob Werth of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish. Third Presbyterian is a Foodlink member food pantry who has seen their neighbors skyrocket in the past year.

Sen. Schumer also invited a Curbside Market Ambassador, Doreen Young, to speak about the bill’s negative impact on her grocery budget and her neighbors’ well-being. Young lives in Plymouth Gardens apartments, and sees firsthand how SNAP benefits help people eat healthier.

“Any plan that takes away food from people like me, or families dealing with soaring cost of living, makes no sense,” Young said. “If people are struggling now, I can only imagine what will happen if this bill is passed.”  

The House bill seeks to reduce the cost of SNAP by reducing enrollment through a variety of proposed changes, such as expanded work requirements for older adults and parents, and shifting some administrative and benefits costs to the states. Sen. Schumer said New York would not have the capacity to absorb this massive increase in expenses.

“Trump already canceled 24 truckloads of U.S. farm-grown food headed to hungry families in Rochester, and these cuts would be a double whammy,” Schumer said. “This is not a partisan issue, it is a moral issue. I’m here with our food banks, faith leaders, and farmers on the frontlines to stand up to protect these programs and stop this cruel cut to SNAP.”

Full transcript of Julia Tedesco’s remarks:

Thank you, Senator Schumer, for convening us here to stand against this disastrous bill — and thank you to our friends at Third Presbyterian for hosting us today, and for all of the work you do to address food insecurity.

I’ll be brief, because I think the Senator, and Doreen, said it all. But to give some context, Foodlink is our regional food bank, and as the Senator said, we have about 350 partners across 10 counties in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region — covering 7,000 square miles. We distribute about 26 million pounds of food every year. This year, those agencies … those community-based food pantries, meal programs and shelters, are on track to see 2.2 million visits to their doors, the highest that they’ve ever seen.

Every single member that we speak to, including the agencies here today, are seeing more visits than they ever have before. There are about 155,000 people regionally that rely on SNAP benefits, as well. We know that these folks go to food pantries as a last resort, after their SNAP benefits have run out. The SNAP benefits they already have aren’t lasting the full month. After they have spent whatever dollars or other resources they have, they turn to food pantries.

The main message here today is that no food bank in the nation — none of the 200 regional food banks in the nation — can make up for a SNAP decrease of this magnitude. For every one meal that the emergency food network distributes, both here in the Finger Lakes, but really in any zip code in the nation, SNAP makes up nine times that amount. So in order to fill that gap, we’d have have to distribute 200 to 300 million pounds of food annually — something that is just not possible.

Foodlink will continue to be here. Our agencies like St. Andrew’s Food Cupboard, Third Presbyterian, Loop Ministries, will continue to show up every single day — serving children, seniors and families who are in need. But we can’t fill the gap. We’re asking people to stand against this disastrous bill. SNAP is an integral part of the nation’s health and the nation’s economy. You cannot parent well, you cannot learn well, you cannot work well, if you haven’t eaten.

We also need your support. Your local food pantries need your support. We direct people who are in need to go to the Foodlink website and click on the Find Food button, and anywhere, in any zip code, Foodlink and one of our agencies is serving them. Whether that’s here in the City of Rochester, with the agencies I just mentioned and many more, or in any of our suburbs or rural community that we serve … there’s an agency there to serve people.

You can donate on Foodlink’s website, or find your local shelter, meal program or food pantry and donate to them directly — they need it now more than ever.

Thank you, Senator Schumer, or everything you are doing. We appreciate you.