June Lemen

I work at the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter and we wrote testimony against the original SB615 bill. I was present at the State House for all of the testimony for the first version of this bill and was appalled at the lack of understanding by the legislators of how SNAP works, what it does, and how the committee's main focus was concern that people using SNAP would use some of their SNAP money to pay for foods that the legislators did not approve of. When one legislator asked, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could reward people for eating well, instead of trying to make sure that they do not waste their money on junk food?" I was not surprised, but was distressed that none of the people on the committee had heard that SNAP already does this with their "Double UP Bucks" program. It was obvious that the legislators did not know much about SNAP. We definitely need this committee.