Baltimore: Protest food stamp cuts, Feb. 27

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2023 AT 5 PM – 5:30 PM
Protest Food Stamp Cuts
Baltimore City Hall

Press Conference & Rally
Monday, February 27, 5 pm
City Hall, 100 Holliday Street

Emergency food stamp allotments are scheduled to end in 32 states, including Maryland, on February 28, 2023. Eighteen states already cut food stamps. On average, people will lose $82 of SNAP benefits a month. A family of four could see a cut of $328 a month. Seniors could see reductions from $281 to as little as $23 per month.

The Peoples Power Assembly, Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association, Unemployed Workers Union, and others are demanding that these cuts be restored immediately and that the program be expanded due to the continuing inflationary crisis affecting Marylanders.

Dr. Marvin ‘Doc’ Cheatham, Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association and civil rights advocate, stated, “The federal government must address this crisis, but local state and city governments can and must act too. Everyone from the Mayor to the Governor can and must find the resources to keep people from starving and suffering!”

Reverend Annie Chambers, Douglas Homes housing advocate and Peoples Power Assembly organizer, declared, “They can find $100 billion for the Ukraine war, but nothing for the people. This is an outrage! Food stamps must be extended, not cut.”

Baltimore is already hard hit by food deserts and what activists are calling “Baltimore food apartheid.”

Groups have banded together in a campaign to “End Food Apartheid in Baltimore.” They are demanding that the food stamp program be expanded, including lowering requirements to allow seniors and low-wage workers more access. The campaign has called for rolling back prices, including enacting a people’s control board that has the power to freeze and roll back prices and enacting stiff penalties for price gougers.