In response to media coverage about Senator Mike Lee’s proposed legislation to cut federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Crossroads Urban Center issued the following statement:
At our two emergency food pantries we are helping more people each month than we have at any time since a group of local Methodists created Crossroads Urban Center in 1966. Every day we see families who are unable to purchase adequate food because of the impact inflation has had on the cost of rent and prices at grocery store. Now those families are facing new challenges with recently announced Food Tariffs scheduled to be imposed in the next few days. It is shocking that Utah Senator Mike Lee is proposing to cut federal funding for America’s largest nutrition assistance program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in a time when so many families in our state are already struggling to purchase food.
169,300 people in Utah rely on SNAP to be able to purchase food at the grocery store. The average household participating in SNAP in Utah receives $329 per month in benefits. 69 percent of people participating in SNAP in Utah are members of a family with children. More than 26 percent of households participating in SNAP include a family member who is a senior or person with disabilities.
We encourage Senator Lee to visit food pantries in Utah and meet people who are struggling to pay for food and learn about the difference SNAP makes in the lives of families in our state. We challenge Senator Lee to have the courage to admit that the SNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act of 2025 is bad policy and remove his sponsorship for this misguided bill.
