A Blue Apron

On February 12^th, Trump’s Administration proposed to change roughly 40% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s benefits (SNAP).  SNAP is an organization that offers low income families $126 per month towards grocery shopping. Originally the amount was distributed in food stamps but in recent years it was converted to an EBT transfer. The alternative for the recipients has been called ‘America’s Harvest Box’ but Trump’s director Mick Mulvaney has referred to it as a ‘Blue Apron’.

The term Blue Apron originally came from companies that serve fresh ingredient recipes to homes so they too can enjoy luxurious celebrity chef-like meals. It’s customers can choose their meals so it best fits their dietary needs. However, Trump’s Blue Apron consists of canned and packaged foods chosen by the state governments. In the past eight years, Michelle Obama tried to enforce healthy school meals and was constantly repealed by congress. Now, Trump is force feeding millions processed foods that are extremely unhealthy. Children are still being ridiculed and marked for their family’s insufficiency to provide money to pay for school lunches, but rather than solving that issue with Betsy DeVos (who is the secretary of Education), he would rather waste money by feeding families like veterans at war.

According to CNN, 13 million children don’t get enough food as it is, but the “pro-life” Republicans believe this solution will guarantee longer life expectancy. GOP has always looked down upon low-income families, labeling them as lazy an ungrateful. Ronald Reagan once mentioned them as “welfare mothers” but now we are to believe this new proposal is beneficial to the people. The Republican’s only care about themselves and what benefits them. This new harvest box is inhumane and economically, would cost a lot more money to create in comparison to the SNAP system that is already in place.

The lack of basic human dignity illustrated through this Blue Apron is upsetting. Discussions on specific dietary plans haven’t even been discussed. People have allergies and different styles of eating and that’s just within a household. How will this harvest box cater to vegans, those with lactose and allergies? It will almost be impossible to keep up with millions of people’s dietary needs. People should be able to pick and choose what they want to eat; this is not a dictatorship nor is it the plantation.

The Trump Administration needs to do much more for the people, ALL people. Not just those that are in the same tax bracket. If cutting costs is the motive behind this Blue Apron, then Congress needs to revise this proposal because it seems as though it would cost a lot more money to put this in action. Hopefully, this shameful proposal doesn’t get approved because this is simply cruel.

Written by Tolu Sarah Martins

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