As a child, I felt so fancy when we used the purple food stamps — those were the pretty ones.

We were a hardworking, loving family. My parents ensured we weren’t around anyone who tried to make us feel “less than” for needing help to make ends meet.

That’s just reality in America. When the federal minimum wage remains stuck at $7.25 while prices for everything else increase month after month, year after year…yeah, we’re going to need some help feeding our families, affording health care, and keeping a roof over our heads. Where I live, the hourly cost of child care alone is more than twice the minimum wage.

So as an adult I again rely on food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to feed my family. SNAP helps over 40 million Americans put food on the table.

And I’m watching with fear as the Republican majority in Congress and the Trump administration propose slashing food assistance to 40 million people and denying free and reduced school meals to 12 million children. Even Meals on Wheels, already deeply underfunded, has taken a hit recently.

“So, go to a food pantry,” these people say. The reality is that for every one meal that food pantries struggle to supply, SNAP provides nine. And the Trump administration is also cutting funding for food banks.

“Get a job. Budget better,” they say. I have a job, and I know how to budget.

But you can’t “budget better” when there isn’t enough in your paycheck to cover even basic human needs. Most people who receive SNAP benefits who are able to work do work. Two-thirds are children, seniors, or people with disabilities. We’re all at risk of losing even this modest assistance to feed ourselves and our families.

‘We’re just cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in the SNAP program,” they say. But the fraud rate in SNAP is just 1 percent. So why is food for children, families, people with disabilities, workers, and seniors on the chopping block?

Let’s get beyond the false rhetoric to the truth: The new administration and its allies in Congress want to fund a massive tax giveaway to the richest Americans and the largest corporations. So they’re taking our taxpayer dollars away from programs that support us and giving them to those who need the least help.

They all took an oath to serve us, but instead they’re betraying us. The rich have so much already, but they always seem to want more.

Even though we didn’t have a lot of money, my father always worked in our community to help others. I do the same to help my neighbors find the resources they need and to hold our elected officials accountable. My heart is full of love. When I look at my community, I see the beauty and the greatness among the need.

We may be poor due to this country’s wage and income system, which rewards inherited wealth over hard work and disinvests in families and communities. But we know the values of family, community, work, and service. We demand that those elected to serve us do the same.

——

Tania Whitfield is a mother in Lexington, Kentucky,

and a volunteer with the Kentucky Food Action

Network and VOCAL-Kentucky, a member

organization of People’s Action Institute.