JALA Urges Congress to Support Child Health – Confirms Basic Nutritional Needs are at Risk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JALA URGES CONGRESS TO SUPPORT CHILD HEALTH –
CONFIRMS BASIC NUTRITIONAL NEEDS ARE AT RISK IF IT ACTS TO
ENFORCE NATIONWIDE SNAP’S CHILD SUPPORT COOPERATION REQUIREMENT

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, May 10, 2018 — The North Florida Medical Legal Partnership, a division of
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc., has advised Congress that adopting a child support cooperation
requirement to determine eligibility for SNAP benefits endangers child health. Florida is one of only six
states in the country that has already adopted this misguided approach, and JALA has asked Congress to
learn from Florida’s mistakes, as opposed to forcing bad policy on the rest of the nation.

Florida’s decision to adopt the option creates undue burden on single parent households already under
a tremendous amount of stress and in need of access to the most basic of life’s necessities: FOOD.

SNAP Benefits Summary:

1. SNAP is a vital program that helps 1 in 8 Americans afford an adequate diet.
2. It reduces food insecurity and keeps millions out of poverty.
3. Children who participate in SNAP have improved health and educational outcomes over the
   course of their lives.
4. Florida’s decision to elect the SNAP child support cooperation requirements does not result in
   increased child support to vulnerable low income families. It instead deters otherwise eligible
   parents and children from accessing critical food assistance.

JALA’s Managing Attorney for the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership, Katy DeBriere, shares her
personal experience in working with low-income families and the direct relationship it has to the health
of children:

“I manage a medical legal partnership with pediatric providers located in the Jacksonville, Florida
community, including Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Nemours Children’s Specialty Care. I work
daily with social worker aid to address the needs of low income patients in order to produce
better health outcomes.

SNAP advocacy plays an important role in my job; it is a short line from food security to better
health outcomes. In that advocacy, the healthcare providers and I find that Florida’s child
support cooperation requirements in SNAP eligibility pose significant barriers to connecting
children and families to adequate and healthy food.

Florida’s child support cooperation requirements in SNAP make applications for benefits
intimidating or impractical for custodial households.”

Case Study
A social worker recently gave an example of a mother of three who decided to not apply for SNAP
benefits because the paternal grandmother provided them a place to live. The mother knew that, if she
initiated child support enforcement proceedings against the father, she and her children would be
kicked out of the only affordable housing they could access. The mother had to choose between
adequate nutrition or a safe place to live.

JALA and the NFMLP urge Congress to adopt common-sense guidelines for SNAP instead of following
Florida’s harmful example.

About Jacksonville Area Legal Aid:
The mission of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc. is to obtain and provide high quality legal assistance to
low income and other special need groups and to stimulate and empower groups of poor people to
accomplish energetic and affirmative advocacy, all to alleviate the circumstances, incidents and causes
of poverty. Donate at www.JaxLegalAid.org.

About Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership:
The NFMLP is part of a nationwide network of projects in which professionals from the medical and legal
communities combine resources to produce outcomes for low-income and vulnerable patients (children
and adults) that positively impact their health and ability to thrive.

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