Bipartisan proposals aimed at improving the lives of low-income American citizens have been on the rise, with suggestions for a Presidential Poverty Summit and the extension of legal aid through the Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable. US military members and their families will be given the chance to be cared for using these relief opportunities.
According to Above the Law, one od the bills reported is the Military Hunger Prevention Act that was put forward into Congress by a bipartisan group in the House of Representatives. This would make food support available for a group of needy Americans, particularly the US military members, to ensure they rise above the hunger and poverty that is being experienced at the moment.
According to the law news site, a surprisingly large number of armed forces members are in need of aid in accessing healthy and nutritious food not only for themselves, but for their families as well. Among these tens of thousands of US military members, it remains unknown as to how many are not accepted into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
While US military members suffer physical and emotional pain as the short-term effects of hunger, they have also experienced its long-term impact in such a way that their children are suffering in their homes that are deprived of food. With these young individuals’ intellectual development being delayed, their learning suffers and the overall health experiences a decline.
Yet, an oddity in the current law prevents numerous active members of the US military from being qualified for SNAP benefits despite their eligibility, San Diego Tribune reported. The Military Hunger Prevention Act aims to turn this quirk around. Such act will disregard a military housing allowance’s value from assets, such as income, used in determining SNAP eligibility.
SNAP’s main purpose is to reduce food insecurity among households and has been found to have put over two million Americans out of severe poverty annually, while helping tens of millions avoid hunger. However, US military members and their families receiving basic house allowance are often overlooked.
A San Diego Congress member, Susan Davis, spoke of the hunger prevention act for US military members.
“Those who make great personal sacrifices in service to our country should not have to struggle to provide regular, nutritious meals to their families,” said Davis, an original sponsor of the act. She explained that such barrier “prevents military families struggling with food insecurity from getting help from available federal nutrition assistance programs.”
In response, anti-hunger organizations in the country are supporting the Military Hunger Prevention Act. This bill seeks to exclude all basic allowance funds received by US military members and their families from eligibility assessment, as a way to demonstrate a national commitment to those who have served the country.
