Recording in progress.
Good afternoon.
I'm Riley Vetterkin, Communications
Director at the Wisconsin Department
of Justice.
Thanks everyone for joining today's
press conference.
Following remarks by AG Call and our
speakers, we will have some time for
questions.
If you would like to ask a question
at that time, please raise your hand
and I will call on you in the order
in which you raised it.
I will also repeat these directions
once our speakers are concluded.
And with that, let's get started.
I'll hand things over to AG Call.
Thanks.
Great. Thank you, Riley.
Thank you everybody else for joining
us. I am attorney general Josh
Call and I am happy
to be joined today by Amber Dawgs
who's the CEO and founder of
Grow It Forward in Manitowoc.
I'm also joined by Bianca Lewis
who's a founder of a Cry For Help
Foundation in Milwaukee.
And we are here today to talk about
SNAP.
As we announced earlier today,
my administration has joined
a number of AGs as well
as three governors from around the
country. In filing a
lawsuit today, challenging the
position that the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has taken,
which is that it's going to stop
providing funding for the SNAP
program, the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, as
of November 1st.
We have argued in our suit that
this action is unlawful.
Throughout SNAP's history,
a government shutdown has never
stopped states from distributing
these critical benefits to those who
need them.
So this lawsuit is about protecting
food share funding and preventing
Wisconsinites and millions of others
from around the country from losing
access to what can be
life-sustaining food assistance as
the government shutdown moves
forward.
I think it's important to note how
widespread the use of this program
is. There are more than 40
million Americans who rely on
Snap. And that includes more than
690,000 people here
in Wisconsin.
That's about one in eight
Wisconsinites.
They use SNAP to buy food each
month.
That includes approximately 170,000
children, 110,000
older adults, and roughly 19,000
veterans just here in Wisconsin.
Nearly 60 percent of food share
participants in Wisconsin are in
families with children and
nearly half are in working families.
For many families that rely on SNAP,
access to that program is the
difference between having enough to
eat and going hungry.
Now, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture has claimed that there's
not enough money available to
pay full November benefits,
but the USDA has access to
contingency funds that Congress
specifically set aside for
emergencies like this.
We've argued that failing to use
those funds would violate federal
harm, federal law and cause
real harm to people in this
country. It's also inconsistent
with a position that USDA
itself took at the beginning of
October.
We cannot allow Wisconsinites
to lose access to food share
benefits when there are resources
in place that can be used to
keep this program running.
This would, by the way, not only
have serious implications for folks
who rely on SNAP to buy food,
but would also put a significant
burden on communities, including
food banks and food pantries.
So that's why we filed the suit.
We're gonna be seeking a temporary
restraining order to restore
these critical food share benefits.
I wanna stress that the challenge we
are facing here is not that we don't
have the resources as a nation to
fund this program, we do.
We are not in the midst of
an economic collapse.
What we are missing right now is
leadership from the federal
government in Washington.
And the leadership we need at
USDA.
That's what makes the difference
between whether families are going
to be harmed by the stop
of benefits in this program or not.
So we've brought this suit and we're
hoping to bring relief to the
Wisconsinites who would be impacted
by this.
So with that, I'm going to turn it
over to Amber Dawgs.
Thank you, A.G.
Carl.
25 years ago, I was
food insecure and I know
what it feels like to stretch a few
dollars and still fall short.
To have to choose between paying a
bill or buying groceries,
the Food Share SNAP program was my
lifeline and it gave me
dignity and stability to rebuild my
life and that experience
is what led me to found Grow It
Forward.
We are a community food center based
in Manitowoc and dedicated to
ensuring that no one in our
community has to face hunger
alone.
Grow It Forward's mission is
to provide dignified access to good
food.
And through our community food
center, we operate a food pantry,
a weekly community meal,
a hydroponic farm, a garden and a
winter farmers market.
All designed to not just feed
people, but to empower and
strengthen local food connections.
In the past year alone, we've served
over 1,800 individuals.
These are families, seniors,
and children who depend on healthy,
reliable food.
But lately, we're seeing a record
need and fewer resources
to meet it.
The reality in Manitowoc County is
that Manitowa County ranks number
three in Wisconsin for the
percentage of farmers market sales
made using food share
that's behind Dunn and
Dane counties.
That means that families here in
Manitowoc County, they want to buy
local fresh food when
they have the means to do so.
But the average food share benefit
in Manatowoc county is an average of
$4.91 per person
per day, barely enough
to cover a single meal,
let alone milk, meat,
eggs, or produce.
When the benefits are reduced, the
pressure on local organizations like
ours skyrockets.
At Grow It Forward are already
rationing food.
Limiting how often families can come
and how often we are able to
provide protein and produce that we
give out.
Because demand right now exceeds
the donations and the inventory
available.
And while we are already doing
everything we can to provide our
neighbors, our community members
in need, we simply do not
have enough philanthropic
threshold to replace what
is going to be lost.
We're talking about a million
dollars in food share.
In Manitowoc County that currently
circulates our grocery stores and
our markets.
Again, no amount of fundraising
on my behalf can fill
that potential gap.
SNAP is not just a social program,
it's an economic engine.
For every one dollar in SNAP that
is generating in our community
over a dollar fifty in
local economic activity,
those dollars go straight into
grocery stores, into farmers
markets, to local farms,
into local food producers.
When benefits are cut, everyone
feels it, families, small
businesses, farmers, and
nonprofits alike.
Reduced SNAP benefits mean fewer
grocery sales, less money
circulating locally, and increased
pressure on food pantries and
community meal sites that
are already stretched thin.
And for communities like Manitowoc,
where the philanthropic pool is
modest, it's not just a
funding challenge, it's an
existential one.
SNAP is essential to food access
ecosystems everywhere.
It is the backbone of Wisconsin's
food access ecosystem.
To ensure dignity and choice,
Food Share allows families to shop
for its food that fits its
nutritional and health needs.
It strengthens local agriculture and
sustains our small town food
economy.
When SNAP falters, the entire
system begins to bend and
community programs like ours begins
to be the safety net.
For the safety net.
But charity cannot replace federal
nutrition programs, not
in Manitowoc, not anywhere.
So what does this mean for Manitowa
and for Grow It Forward?
Here in Manatowoc we pride ourselves
on being a community that takes
care of its own, but
even the most generous community
cannot make up for a million dollar
potential fall this following
month.
Strengthening SNAP means
strengthening local families,
small businesses and farms.
It keeps food on tables and hopes
in our home, especially as
we are heading into the holiday
season.
Food Share is about more than just
food. It's about opportunity and
dignity and the economic health of
our entire community.
Again, I know firsthand what it
means to rely on Food Share to
make it through the week.
Today, I stand here, not
just as someone who once needed
help, but as someone who now
sees every single day how
that help transforms lives.
We must invest in people's ability
to buy food, we must invest
their health, their dignity,
and our local economy.
And at Grow It Forward, we believe
in building a stronger managed walk,
one seed, one meal, one neighbor
at a time.
Thank you.
And we'll now hand things over to
Bianca.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bianca Lewis.
I'm the founder of a Cry For Help
Foundation here in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
I want to speak not just
as a Fulshare recipient,
but also as a mother,
a young mother in our community.
I know for a fact that
if Fulshear doesn't come on a
lot of cars for November,
a lot families I work with,
I advocate for a lot family
members and friends and people in
general in our communities.
Will definitely go hurt by this.
They definitely will go hungry.
We have so many children in
our community that already
is hungry, already are
homeless, and facing so many
barriers.
So because a food share could
potentially be delayed for December,
I mean, November and December, this
would affect so many people's
health, affect our community.
People would do things that they
shouldn't do.
And because of that, it's going to
bring so much harm, just not to
the individual.
To the parents, to business
owners, to the children, to the
schools, to food pantries and
farms.
Me, myself, growing
up in the inner city here in
Milwaukee I went nights without
food. I went days without
having a proper meal because
my grandparents and my parents were
trying to stretch to make a dollar
and stretch to a meal.
No family should go hungry.
No family to go without.
Without these SNAP benefits,
I know so many children would
be affected by this.
Going to school, waking up,
just be affected about it.
So many parents have children
with disabilities, just like me.
I have a two-year-old son named a
legend with a disability, and
without the SNAP benefit, I
knew my son would be effected by
this, and because he would be
effective by this we will most
likely be in and out of children's
hospital because I'm
unable to provide for him.
Without these SNAP benefits, because
I know I use a
portion of the SNAP benefits to get
the PD assuring the PD like that
he needs.
I am asking not just
for me, but for my community
and Milwaukee all around
the surrounding areas.
We need these SNP benefits because
I know once again,
the harm it can do just not
to the parents, to the community,
but the overall state of Wisconsin.
Not only that, I would like to
mention that it's so many homeless
people.
They are already homeless.
They are ready going without.
They're already at the worst end,
at the end of everything.
They ready to give up.
So, without these benefits,
they're going to really, what else
do we have?
Full pantries are going
to be just packed to capacity.
No one deserves to go without these
benefits. No one deserves to
have to wonder when their next
meal is going to come.
No one deserves have to wake
up to figure out if sending their
kids to school was going to feed
them for breakfast, lunch
and dinner.
It's not fair.
And I honestly believe without these
benefit, so many people would
be impacted by this.
And so my hope and prayer today
is someone will to help us
come save our SNAP benefits for
Wisconsin.
And moving forward we all work
together collectively as a community
to help feed
everyone and help
bring back these SNAP benefits for
November.
Thank you very much.
We will now go to questions from
media members.
If you do have a question, please
raise your hand and I will call on
you in the order in which you raised
it. If you are on a phone,
you can press star six to mute or
unmute yourself or star nine to
raise or lower your hand.
Our first question comes from Matt
Smith.
Hey attorney general, sorry about
that, can you hear me okay?
I know this is looking into
a crystal ball, but what is the
likelihood that there will be some
type of
of decision before Friday?
And logistically, what does this all
mean with Saturday quickly
approaching?
Well, first, as you said, you know,
we don't know exactly what's going
to happen in court.
That being said, we are
going to seek quick relief in
this case, including a temporary
restraining order.
Because that date is coming up
so soon, the quicker that
there is potential the more
likely it is that we can.
Not only get a favorable
outcome, but get an outcome that is
gonna make a difference for people
as we move forward.
There already is gonna be some
impact because the administrative
process that states go through
has been impacted already.
But the sooner we can get an order,
the better.
We are optimistic about this case.
As I mentioned before, there has
never been a government shutdown
previously when SNAP
benefits were cut off.
The USDA itself had taken
a position at the beginning of
October that these funds would
continue.
And there are reserve funds in place
for this purpose.
So I believe we have a strong case
and we're gonna seek a quick
resolution
to the extent that we can control
that from the courts.
Thank you, Matt.
And I don't see any other hands
raised right now, so I'll just give
people a few moments to
raise their hands if you do want to
ask a question.
Again, if you are on a phone, you
can press star six to mute or
unmute yourself and star nine to
raise or lower your hand.
And it looks like we have one
additional follow up from Matt.
And it looks like he declined that
one.
Just a few more moments if anyone
else has a question.
Myanne Silver.
And we're getting my end loaded up
as a panelist in just a moment.
Hi there, um, hi attorney general
call.
Um, I've got a couple of
quick questions.
Is there anything that you see can
be done within the state of
Wisconsin, within the led,
you know, the legislative branch,
any sort of developments
that could happen as a
result of this lawsuit,
um that legislators would
decide to do something in Wisconsin
and also could you weigh in on
the, um.
On the food drive effort happening
in Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.
If that's gonna be like a drop
in the bucket for what people need.
Yeah, well, first, let me speak to
what's going on in the state, and I
think Amber and Bianca may want to
weigh in on food drive efforts and
food pantries as well.
So first, my understanding
is that the legislative
leaders, at least Senator
Felskowski, has indicated that
there is unlikely to be any state
legislation on this topic.
You know, if that's something the
legislature wants to take up,
certainly that's Potentially of
interest, although I will say that
as the shutdown continues,
the strain on a variety of
resources, including food
share benefits is just going to
increase. And so what we really
need is resolution of this issue
at the federal level so that
the government is able to reopen and
that programs can return to
operating as normal in
terms of the impact.
You know, as Amber talked
about, and I'm sure she and Bianca
can speak more too.
SNAP is the backbone of
food security programs,
and the critically important work
that food pantries and food
banks do that supplements what
SNAP is able to do.
If we lose SNAP access,
food panties are going to be overrun
with people.
And the more that people can do to
support those who are struggling,
the better. But we are very much
looking at a situation where we may
have folks... Waiting in very long
lines just to be able to access
food. Again, not because we
are in the middle of an economic
catastrophe, but because we're in
the midst of a failure of leadership
from D.C.
So the sooner that this can be
resolved, the better.
And it's our hope that this suit
will ensure that those benefits
remain in place for a period of time
and hopefully provide
more time before people are harmed
by this shutdown.
Amber and Bianca, if either if you
want to speak to the
food drive.
There are many, many food drives
taking place already here in
Manitowoc County.
A recent one though returns
33% less food donations
than the year prior.
So we are already seeing a deduction
in philanthropic capacity
generally because grocery
costs are so much higher for folks.
So you know people who maybe donate
in the past are struggling
to do so when they're trying to feed
their own families without
the SNAP benefits in place.
Additionally, we did see already an
increase in attendance this last
week at our pantry.
People are stocking up to be
prepared.
So a lot of new families joining
our pantry when our
shelves are already quite bare.
And any donation is greatly
appreciated, whether that be for our
organization or others throughout
our accounting.
So I would like to speak here
in Milwaukee. We have set up three
different dates that we will be
giving out food.
We expect them to see anywhere
between 75 to
100 families for all three days.
We will be releasing those
dates here this Thursday.
And I'll be welcome to share it with
anyone who's interested in getting
those days.
They won't need an ID or
anything with the address on it.
They can just pull up and they will
be getting these food.
Thank you. And we'll now head
to final call for any questions.
Again, if you have a question,
please raise your hand.
And we'll go to Celine from the
Daily Cardinal.
And just a reminder, you will need
to accept the invitation as
a panelist.
To be able to speak.
We can hear you.
Hi, my question
was, do you
have any idea of how the loss
of food share spending will affect
our economy,
like grocery stores and small
businesses?
Yeah, I can speak to it generally.
As you heard, I believe Amber talked
about before, we know that.
The impact of food share dollars
goes beyond just the money that is
directly spent and that it actually
generates further economic
activity.
So the loss of a significant
amount of funding here in Wisconsin,
as well as other states around the
country, is going to have some
significant economic consequences.
It's going to impact potentially
grocers. It could impact farmers if
this drags on.
And of course, it impacts the people
who rely on this program.
How broad those impacts are.
We don't know yet, but.
But this is an issue that,
to your point, is a humanitarian
issue, of course, because we have
people who may not know where their
next meal is going to be.
But this going to impact people's
productivity, it's going to impact
the ability of kids to learn, and
it's gonna impact our economy as
well.
Great, thank you for that question
and that will conclude today's
press conference. I want to thank
everyone for joining.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.