Key Takeaways

  • The average monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit for a senior living alone is $106 per month, less than $4 per day in benefits.

  • This modest benefit helps seniors who too often are forced to choose between paying for food, medicine, rent, heat, or other daily costs.

  • Read the group letter to the House Agriculture Committee signed by 35 national organizations sharing concerns about the House 2018 Farm Bill proposals’ effects on older adults.

For decades, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has helped ensure that vulnerable, low-income people in our nation can put food on the table. In a joint letter to the House Committee on Agriculture, NCOA, along with other organizations, is urging Congress to continue the longstanding bipartisan commitment to protect and strengthen SNAP, specifically by opposing proposals to restrict eligibility, reduce benefits, cap or reduce funding, or make harmful structural changes in the upcoming 2018 Farm Bill.

Below is the downloadable joint letter signed by NCOA and other organizations expressing support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and for the House Committee on Agriculture to reconsider these proposals that would weaken SNAP's structure and limit access for people of all ages.