A Trump administration representative got booed, laughed at and walked out on when he showed up at the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference and touted the administration’s plan to take away low-income families’ choices about what to eat while harming local grocery stores. The Trump proposal is to replace some Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits with “harvest boxes” of shelf-stable foods. Because screw you, poor people, you’ll eat whatever we can buy at the biggest discount and if you don’t have a working kitchen, then screw you even more.
Anti-hunger professionals did not bother being polite about this idea:
At this week's conference, Brandon Lipps — who serves as both administrator of USDA's Food and Nutrition Service and as acting deputy undersecretary of food, nutrition and consumer services — spoke during the anti-hunger breakfast session on Monday. Lipps lauded federal nutrition programs for playing a crucial role in society, and emphasized a need to do a better job of helping people move out of poverty.
But the room erupted in boos and muted laughter as soon as he mentioned harvest boxes.
First of all, shut up with this “harvest box” nonsense. "Harvest": “the season when ripened crops are gathered” or “a crop or yield of one growing season.” There is no harvest at the canned food factory. If the Trump administration wants to pay local farmers to put together boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables, it will still be a terrible idea but they can call it a harvest box without being full-on liars. Powdered milk and canned peas is not a damn harvest box. “Harvest box” is intended to make us think of bounty and fresh food, and this plan is the exact opposite of that.
Lipps was unfazed by the raucous crowd. "As with any innovative idea, and we don't see those inside the Beltway very often, there are questions to be answered and details to be worked out,” he said calmly. “Your boos are welcome, but so are your good ideas. Please talk to us. All new ideas require dialogue."
The boos grew significantly louder when Lipps later suggested that food boxes would lower program costs while also keeping SNAP benefits at essentially the same level they are at now.
