Aunnah Shaw, Minot

As a prior SNAP recipient and current social work student, I support increased funding and ethical reform. I’ve submitted two formal letters to U.S. Senators outlining systemic failures in Ward County. I’m willing to speak directly as someone with lived experience and academic grounding. Statistics alone don’t reflect what families actually face — we need policy shaped by truth.

I urge lawmakers to increase — not reduce — SNAP funding. Policy must reflect real-life complexity, not dehumanized or incomplete data. Cuts harm children, destabilize families, and punish those working to rise. We need data with context, funding with integrity, and leadership that applies social empathy and fully considers lived realities before making political decisions that directly affect whether families, children, and taxpaying citizens can eat, stabilize, or survive.