Op-Ed: Farm Bill Proposal Gets Military Food Stamp Policy Wrong

Abby J. Leibman is president and CEO of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, a national advocacy organization working to end hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel.

Kathy Roth-Douquet is CEO at Blue Star Families, a national, nonprofit network of military spouses, children, parents and friends, as well as service members, veterans and civilians, dedicated to supporting, connecting and empowering military families.

Tens of thousands of military families nationwide experienced food insecurity last year, and yet the new Farm Bill will make it more difficult for these families to get relief. U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, recently released a video about the 2018 Farm Bill that ends with an echoing proclamation that, "we must get this policy right."

It's hard to see how his draft of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 even comes close to achieving that goal. Instead, this bill includes proposals and provisions that threaten to pull the rug out from under millions of Americans, among them thousands of currently serving members of our nation's armed forces.

It is a harsh, underreported reality that far too many lower-ranking enlistees need help feeding their families. Military families may experience food insecurity because of financial emergencies, low pay, and crises levels of chronic unemployment or underemployment of military spouses in a society where most families need dual incomes to live.

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