Following passage of federal Budget Reconciliation legislation in Congress July 3, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina released the following statement from President & CEO Amy Beros.

We are outraged by the passage of budget legislation that includes devastating cuts to essential programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, FNS, or Food Stamps). This vote is not just a political decision — it is a direct assault on the health and well-being of families across Central and Eastern North Carolina.

Tens of thousands more children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities in our region will go hungry because leaders in Washington chose to turn their backs on our communities. Instead of protecting the most vulnerable among us, Congress and the President have advanced a budget that deepens poverty and worsens the hunger crisis that more than 607,000 people already face daily in our communities.

Hunger is a policy choice. And at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, we witness the real-life consequences of these decisions every day. Led by many of these same politicians, federal cuts to food and funding have already had devastating effects on the availability of food and essential resources for people facing hunger in North Carolina. This legislation will force even more families to make impossible choices between groceries, medicine, and housing.

We condemn this vote in the strongest possible terms. Our leaders should be finding ways to reduce hunger and put people on the path to self-sufficiency—not enacting cruel policies that push more local farms, businesses, and neighbors into desperation. We urge our elected officials to reconsider their priorities and stand with the people they were elected to serve.

No one should go hungry—no matter where we live, where we’re from, who we love, or the color of our skin. Yet with this vote by Congress and a stroke of the President’s pen, millions more people will soon face hunger here in North Carolina and across the country.

With massive government cuts to food, funding, and grocery support for families, It has never been more important to get involved in the fight to end hunger.