On March 18, federal officials published a piece promising that the Trump administration is bringing "more healthy foods" to families who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. At the same time, they claim “SNAP has been taken advantage of" by businesses cheating the system, leaving millions of vulnerable Americans without healthy, nutrient-dense food options.

I'd like to offer a different account of what this moment actually looks like for everyday Americans. From where I'm sitting, at a kitchen table in Maine, this moment looks like me trying to figure out how to feed my two kids on $241 less a month than I had last year thanks to the policies of these very same officials.

I am a single mother who works in the nonprofit sector, and my 8-year-old son has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is on the autism spectrum. When I left my unhealthy marriage, SNAP wasn’t a safety net that caught me as I fell – it was the floor to where I crashed, then was able to stand on while I rebuilt our lives. The stability provided by SNAP........

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