What do a farmer, a food bank director and a Republican state senator all have in common?
They're among those sounding the alarm about a proposal in Congress to cut between 20% and 30% from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP.
In Maine, more than 179,000 people rely on it for food every month. But if the reduction is approved, advocates say food insecurity will rise and Maine's rural economy will suffer.
It's not often that a press conference is held in western Maine, let alone at a farmers' market. But on Saturday, the director of the state's largest food pantry joined other food providers and local leaders in Bridgton to speak out.
"I come here today to say to the politicians in Washington, D.C.: Remember the people who elected you. Don't turn your backs on rural Americans," said Republican state Sen. Rick Bennett from Oxford.
In Bennett's county, 16% of residents rely on SNAP, including nearly 3,300 children. The proposal under consideration would cut $230 billion nationally from SNAP over ten years. And with a looming state budget deficit, rising food prices and economic uncertainty, Bennett said policymakers need to understand that the stakes are high.
"Don't be cavalier with the health and safety of Maine families. Stop the disruption and the chaos. Give people in difficult times a hand up, embrace kindness and compassion," he said.
According to the Maine Federation of Farmers' Markets, most of the recipients of SNAP are families with at least one person working. But some are also older residents, children and about 6,000 veterans. And advocates say the proposed SNAP curtailment couldn't come at a worse time.
"This is our produce and this is what we've got from two pickups," said Harrison Food Bank Executive Director Sandy Swett.
At the Harrison Food Bank, the largest food pantry in the state, Swett showed the dwindling food supplies in her cooler and on her shelves.
"Not one bit of fruit came in last week, last Tuesday ... This was empty. This was empty. Usually, there's pallets of potatoes, you know, in the winter, root vegetables ... nothing," she said.
Swett, who provides food to 1,000 households every week, said other recent federal cuts are already affecting her operation.
"I have 50 volunteers, and we're heartbroken right now because we just don't have the food to pass out," she said.
Swett said they used to have two large boxes filled with meat, cheese, yogurt, pre-made sandwiches and fresh vegetables and fruit. But now they're only able to give families one box and meat, produce and other premium items are few and far between.
"Without the SNAP benefits, we're just gonna be hit harder and what are we gonna do?" she said.
It's a question that farmers are also asking.
Inside the Bridgton Farmers' Market, products like eggs, meat, vegetables and herbs are for sale from local farmers. And Brittany Strange is able to use her SNAP benefits and something called Harvest Bucks to pay them directly for what she needs.
"One year, during — when they were giving us extra benefits during COVID and all that, we had enough that we could buy half a pig and that was amazing. It really filled our freezer and that was such a blessing," she said.
Strange said she's also able to use SNAP to purchase seedlings from a local farmer and then plants them in her vegetable garden. And that farmer, BrennaMae Googins of Patch Farm in Denmark, said she in turn relies on customers like Strange. The Bridgton Farmers' Market has been accepting SNAP since 2014 and Googins said her farm has seen a 400% increase in SNAP use during that time.
"That's just an amazing thing to me, to see the growth that this program has had in this area for just about ten years. Over those years we have built a network of farmers and support to be able to offer fresh, local foods to the customers in our community," she said.
According to the Maine Federation of Farmers' Markets, 400 farms directly benefit from SNAP spending. And it's not just farms. They say every $1 in SNAP-related spending generates $1.50 or more in local economic activity: agriculture, food production and retail sales.
State Sen. Rick Bennett said in rural Oxford County 60 retailers rely on SNAP and he said his concern is that the hardworking people of his district will be forgotten.
