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Local nonprofits are raising concerns after H.R.1, commonly referred to as “The One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed the U.S. Senate and is heading back to the U.S. House of Representatives for another vote.
Casa de Peregrinos’ Executive Director Lorenzo Alba Jr. said that he was not surprised when he heard it passed the Senate and that the food bank is preparing for and already seeing more people seeking help for food.
“In the last two days that we have been open, we have served about 900 families,” Alba said. “That’s a lot of families in just two days. Normally we are at about 350-360 a day.”
Alba said that this spike can be traced back to people's fear over SNAP benefits possibly being cut. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill could cut 20% of SNAP funding and 2 million people could lose assistance.
“All of a sudden they are not going to be getting as much as they imagined they would be getting or they will be completely cut out,” Alba said. “That’s really going to have an effect on us and I think we need to figure out ways to serve them.”
While Casa de Peregrinos does not receive much federal funding, some projects that Alba was hoping to work on could face budget issues.
Alba said that the food bank is working on a joint project with the City of Las Cruces and El Caldito Soup Kitchen but federal funds are needed to complete it.
“That will probably be affected for sure,” Alba said.
Casa de Peregrinos is launching its “Hope Begins with a Meal” fundraising campaign to raise funds.
“We give them a significant amount of food. They get 150 pounds of food from us every time they come in. That's a full basket of groceries and if we have to cut back on that, which we may have to do, it's really going to affect the families significantly,” Alba explained.
In a statement from U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, Heinrich called the bill “the largest cut to food assistance in American history,” and he added, “the consequences of this bill will be deadly.”
Heinrich and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan both voted against the bill and were joined by the 45 other Democrat senators, plus three Republican senators.
