As Food Stamp Use Grows, Some Lawmakers Eye Program's Funding

WASHINGTON-The number of Connecticut residents relying on food stamps jumped 33 percent over the last year, hitting a record high fueled by expanded eligibility and economic hard times.

At the same time, lawmakers in Washington have begun tapping the federal food stamp program to pay for other priorities, including a pending child nutrition bill.

The twin developments have pit anti-hunger advocates against public health experts, two interest groups that normally work shoulder-to-shoulder in Washington. Now, they are on opposite sides of a debate over whether to preserve hard-won gains in the federal food program or move ahead with a dramatic overhaul of childhood nutrition policy.

"I shouldn't be fighting with nutrition people," said Lucy Nolan, executive director of End Hunger Connecticut!, a nonprofit advocacy group that has pushed to expand Connecticut participation in the federal food stamp program.

But she is, because lawmakers in Washington are "taking away money from low-income families to feed kids better food."

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