Gregory Bull / AP
A man receives food at an Armed Services YMCA food distribution, Oct. 28, 2021, in San Diego. As many of 160,000 active duty military members are having trouble feeding their families, according to Feeding America, which coordinates the work of more than 200 food banks around the country.
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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Americans owe a tremendous debt to the members of our nation’s Armed Forces, but we’re falling shamefully short in providing far too many of them with the means they need to support themselves and their families.
Recently, the Associated Press published a shocking story showing that as many as 160,000 active-duty Americans in uniform are struggling with food insecurity and are having to turn to charitable organizations to feed themselves and their families. That estimate came from Feeding America, a nonprofit network that coordinates operations of more than 200 food banks around the country, including Three Square food bank of Las Vegas.
There are several factors behind this. The pay for many junior-level ranks is too low to support families’ food budgets, for instance, and spouses of uniformed personnel frequently have trouble maintaining steady work due to the frequent transfers that are a normal part of military life.
Another obstacle: Due to a confounding rule in the eligibility requirements for federal food stamps — or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, as they’re formally known — thousands of military are disqualified from obtaining these benefits.
This is an unforgivable situation. Not only are we as a society not providing these families with adequate compensation, we’re cutting them off from benefits we offer to non-military families who are facing food insecurity.
As the AP reports, this is a longstanding problem. Members of the military have suffered in silence for years, reluctant to raise attention to the issue due to fear of appearing vulnerable in a culture where self-sufficiency is expected.
“It’s a shocking truth that’s known to many food banks across the United States,” said Vince Hall, Feeding America’s government relations officer. “This should be the cause of deep embarrassment.”
Indeed. It should also be cause for an immediate response, including pay raises and a change in SNAP eligibility requirements for military families. Fortunately, the AP story might spur reform of the SNAP issue — the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was “taking a fresh look at our authorities with respect to this policy” in response to an inquiry on the story.
It’s also critical to ensure that military families who are eligible for regional cost-of-living adjustments get them. No military family should have to suffer food insecurity due to being stationed in a community with higher food and housing costs.
Americans enlist in the military knowing they’ll have to make certain sacrifices, including lackluster compensation for many ranks, but they shouldn’t have to put their families’ food security at risk in order to protect us.
These are people like James Bohannon, a 34-year-old Navy petty officer in San Diego, who told the AP he had to rely on community food assistance to keep his two daughters fed.
“It is what it is,” he said. “You know what you’re signing up for in the military. But I’m not going to lie. It’s really tough.”
That comment should serve as a call to action.
No one should have to go hungry in America, including those who serve in uniform. As we prepare for Thanksgiving feasts this month, we should express our gratitude to these individuals by ensuring that they can put food on their families’ tables.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who lost both of her legs in a helicopter crash in Iraq, told the AP that solutions were long overdue.
“It’s one of these things that the American people don’t know about, but it’s a matter of course among military members. We know this,” she said. “We’re the mightiest military on the face of the earth and yet those who are on the lower rung of our military ranks are — if they are married and have a child or two — they’re hungry. How can you focus on carrying out the mission and defending our democracy if you’re worried about whether or not your kid gets dinner tonight?”
Good question. Now that Americans are aware of this glaring problem, it’s our responsibility to demand that our leaders fix it at once.
