“I’ve never witnessed anything like this. It’s a deliberate attack.”
Last week, the Trump administration continued its assault on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, announcing that it would tighten work requirements for recipients. The Department of Agriculture estimates that hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose their benefits as a result of the rule, which will affect “able-bodied” adults without dependents.
“The Trump Administration issued a draconian rule in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that will cut off basic food assistance for nearly 700,000 of the nation’s poorest and most destitute people,” Robert Greenstein, the president and founder of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a statement.
There are already tough restrictions in place covering who can receive federal food assistance. In 1996, as part of President Bill Clinton’s sweeping welfare reform, then-Reps. John Kasich and Bob Ney, both Ohio Republicans, added a provision to the legislation limiting benefits for “able-bodied adults” between the ages of 18 and 49 with no dependents. After three months of assistance, these SNAP recipients must prove they are working at least 20 hours a week to continue receiving benefits. The measure, however, allowed the governors of states with high unemployment rates to request waivers from the three-month cutoff.
But the new Trump rule makes the criteria for requesting those waivers much stricter by, among other things, changing the type of data states can use to justify the waivers.
“These are folks who are already living on the edge,” says Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. She adds, “It is our national nutrition safety net and it serves 40 million Americans. I’ve never witnessed anything like this. It’s a deliberate attack.” Unsurprisingly, the rule will hit communities of color and people living in rural areas the hardest.
Despite conservative rhetoric, able-bodied adults without dependents who receive SNAP are some of the poorest Americans. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, their average income is 18 percent of the poverty line. Their average monthly SNAP benefits are approximately $165 a month. For many of them, because they are adults without children or other dependents, these are the only federal benefits they are eligible for.
Then there’s the problem of documenting seasonal and gig work. Many individuals who receive SNAP earn their incomes through a string of jobs in the gig economy, such as rideshare driving or one-day freelance projects. “It’s difficult to document that,” Hamler-Fugitt says. “Who’s supposed to certify that you’re working 20 hours?”
Though the rule is not supposed to affect people with disabilities, proving a disability can be an insurmountable task, requiring a SNAP recipient to have access to health care and a health care professional willing to do the paperwork.
Along with gutting a crucial benefit for the poor, the new Trump administration rule could also affect grocery stores in rural and other high-need areas where many customers use SNAP. “Grocery stores are not going to stay in those communities,” Hamler-Fugitt says. “That’s a quality-of-life issue for everyone.” She notes that food banks won’t be able to serve as a stand-in for federal food assistance. “Do not think for one minute that food banks and pantries can fill this gap.”
The Trump administration says the rule, which takes effect in April 2020, will save the government $5 billion over five years. Its effort to impose tougher work requirements on SNAP recipients rests on the old but persistent myth that receiving federal handouts discourages people from working. There is no evidence of that.
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) have introduced legislation, the Protect SNAP Act, to block the Department of Agriculture from implementing the new rule. “President Trump is cutting off a vital lifeline and rigging SNAP against the very people who the program was created to help,” DeLauro said in a press release.
Some states have already begun tallying how many of their residents will lose benefits as a result of the new work requirements. In Oregon, 19,000 SNAP recipients could be affected. In election battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, 45,000 and 50,000 people, respectively, could be stripped of their food assistance. This administration, says Hamler-Fugitt says, “doesn’t give a damn.”
 Here's What Trump's Food Stamp Cuts Will Really Do
“These are folks who are already living on the edge,” says Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. "I’ve never witnessed anything like this. It’s a deliberate attack.” (Mother Jones)
We destroyed the oceans. Now scientists are growing seafood in labs. (Mother Jones)
One man is trying to fight climate change by mobilizing an unlikely team: Iowa’s farmers. (Mother Jones)
Warren has the blues. Here's where her new climate and waterways proposal falls short. (Mother Jones)
New immigration reforms directed at the farm labor shortage. But can they clear Congress? (Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting)
We will never get sick of politicians sinking their teeth into fried food. (Eater)
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NEW FROM BITE PODCAST
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WHAT'S COOKING
Admit it: You’re bored with “Christmas cookies.”
They’re cloyingly sweet, they’re bland, and they can be hard on the eyes, with their “festive” shapes and garish colors. What to make in their place? The holiday season demands a special snack—one that adults can nibble with coffee and kids can inhale as a treat. Biscotti, the famed Italian cookies, aren’t an obvious substitute. They’ve become ubiquitous in coffee shops, and are too often served stale, oversweet, and not worth the often-two-bucks-a-pop price tag.
Here’s the thing. Homemade biscotti, nutty and slightly salty, are terrific—and they’re pretty easy to make. And because they get much of their substance from nuts, they’re a more wholesome snack than the usual flour-dominated holiday cookies. And they’re versatile—while they’re best-known in the US as a foil for coffee, the Italians also enjoy them dunked into the famous Tuscan dessert wine vin santo.
In her Zuni Cafe Cookbook, from which I learned to make biscotti, the great San Francisco chef-restaurateur Judy Rogers suggests serving them with Champagne. Meaning you might want to bust out a second batch for New Year’s Eve.
Sure, the kids may judge them insufficiently sweet. Humbug! That just means more for you. So put down that Santa-shaped cutter and get busy. You’ll be telling me prego when you taste the results.
In the below version, I took Rogers’ recipe, which spices the cookies with anise seeds, and amped it up with orange zest, which works well with the licorice flavor of anise and delivers a seasonal edge. And in place of Rogers’ anisette, an anise-flavored liqueur, I tried Cointreau, an orange-flavored one. Feel free to use either—and either can be replaced, in a pinch, with good old vodka. I also used—because it’s what I had on hand—a dark, minimally processed, mollassasy cane sugar. I worried that it might taste too heavy and overshadow the orange and anise flavors. In the end, though, I liked it—it gave the cookies caramel edge that complemented the other ingredients. Lighter sugars will work as well.
Rogers writes that biscotti are “best aged a few days before serving”—store them in an airtight container, she advises.—Tom Philpott
Orange-Anise Biscotti
Inspired by Judy Rogers’ Zuni Cafe Cookbook. Makes about 18 biscotti.
Ingredients
¾ cups almonds
4 tablespoons butter, kept out overnight in a cool place A generous ½ cup of whole, minimally processed, dark cane sugar 1 large egg Zest of an entire orange, like a Seville 1 ½ teaspoons Cointreau 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoons salt 1 ½ teaspoons anise seeds
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. On a cookie sheet, toast the almonds for about 15 minutes, until they’re lightly brown and toasty-smelling.
Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl—that is, whip it with an electric beater or a whisk until it’s lightly fluffy. Add the egg, the orange zest, and the Cointreau and beat until just incorporated.
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients—the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the seeds—and mix well with a fork or a whisk. Now fold in the wet mixture into the dry stuff with a wooden spoon, until well incorporated.
Divide the dough into two balls and place on a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, roll each ball out into a rope of 1 inch diameter. Carefully lift the dough ropes onto a cookie sheet. (Most cookbooks, including Rogers’, command you to line the cooking sheet with parchment paper. I forgot to this time, and paid no price.)
Bake for 15-20 minutes—”until lightly brown and firm on the surface, but yielding to light pressure,” as Rogers advises.
Place the cooked logs on a cutting board. Using a large sharp knife, cut at an angle into ½ inch slices. Carefully move the biscotti back to the warm cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes more so that they lightly brown. Allow them to cool. Enjoy immediately or store them a few days in an airtight container.
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