It ends with kids eating

By Suzanna Karatassos

Right now, families across Georgia are opening their refrigerators and doing math they shouldn’t have to do. The federal government has shut down again, and with it, SNAP benefits, the primary food assistance for 1.6 million Georgians, are being delayed and reduced. These are not abstract numbers. These are parents, children, seniors, disabled workers, and service industry employees who already live on the thinnest possible margins.    

  There is a solution. The federal government maintains a SNAP contingency reserve specifically for situations like this, to prevent hunger during shutdowns. But Donald Trump, Governor Brian Kemp and GOP leadership have refused to release it, framing hunger relief as “leverage.”

Leverage for what? 

What do you negotiate with a hungry child? 

  Georgia also has its own state emergency food assistance funds, which governors can activate. When Governor Brian Kemp was asked this week whether he would use Georgia’s reserve to keep families fed, he dismissed the idea, saying, “No — if we give them money for SNAP, where does it end?”  

  Let me be clear:

It ends with children eating dinner. 

It ends with seniors not skipping medication to buy groceries.

It ends with working families making it to the next paycheck. 

This is not a slippery slope. This is the floor. Food is the base level of human survival. There is no moral or economic argument in favor of hunger.    

  Right now, families are losing $90–$140 per household in monthly grocery assistance, at a time when corporate grocery chains are reporting record profits. People are not asking for luxury; they are asking for rice, potatoes, peanut butter, bread, and school snacks.

   Meanwhile, the same leaders who tell struggling families to “tighten their belts” have absolutely no qualms spending billions on corporate tax incentives, data center subsidies, and private development deals. Georgia isn’t broke, the Republicans in charge are actively choosing to starve the poor while feeding the wealthy. A reverse Robinhood.

  And the political calculation is as cynical as it is cruel. They are betting that the people most affected; the working poor, single parents, rural families, caregivers, service workers - won’t have the time, energy, or resources to fight back.   

But I believe they are wrong.

Because the people of Georgia understand community. We understand neighbors. We understand that a child’s empty stomach is not a policy debate, it’s a moral emergency!

Food is not a privilege. 

Hunger should not be a motivational tool for anyone elected to govern and protect.

And survival should not depend on who holds power in Washington.  

  Decent leaders, otherwise known as Democrats, would never use their government to punish people for being poor. They would do everything to ensure that no family in this state, or this country, goes hungry.  

  There is a lot of food insecurity in the rural counties surrounding Athens, will local republican representatives step forward to organize? Not that I have heard of. But us Democrats here in Athens and all across the country are already mobilizing to help people in need get the food their families require to survive. Republicans take it away and Democrats give it back.  

  There’s a lot of already existing organizations that are responding and figuring out how to feed people, most are under strain this month - to do your part - find a local organization and volunteer or donate. A few in our area are; The Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, Community Works of Oconee is sponsoring a virtual food drive for FBNE GA, also check with your local church as many have food pantries that you can donate to. Join an organization right now over the holidays because it is now up to communities and people to clean up the mess that Republican policy under Trump has created.

Suzanna Karatassos is a democratic candidate for Georgia State House District 120