More than two dozen activists gathered in St. Paul’s old Rondo neighborhood Friday morning to speak out on the imminent cuts to federal food assistance programs.
Many of those gathered outside the Benjamin Mays Magnet School have needed SNAP benefits before in their lives, according to Minnesota AFL-CIO president Bernie Burnham.
"The consequences are very real for Americans, and using hunger as a political weapon is beyond immoral," Burnham said Friday. "So our message to President Trump and his allies in Congress is clear. Restore SNAP funding and end the shutdown in a way that doesn't make health care and other essentials even more expensive."
Records show the SNAP program provides food assistance to nearly half-a-million Minnesotans, about 152,000 of them are children.
However, there is a ray of hope, and pointed to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's announcement that $4 million in one-time emergency state funding would be given to Minnesota food shelves on Monday.
"Thanks to the work of Governor Walz and progressive legislators, K-12 students in our public schools will continue to have access to free breakfast and lunch, and thanks to the governor's emergency assistance, food shelves aren't going into this completely unprepared," says Burnham.
She went on to say this is just a stopgap solution and funding needs to be restored.
On Friday afternoon, two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.
The rulings are likely to face appeals.