In an editorial, Jersey City mayoral candidate Jim McGreevey discusses why the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) “matters so profoundly.”
I first came to understand the power, and the pain, of hunger when I was in seminary, working with Exodus Transitional Community in Harlem. We would serve pancakes and hot dogs, and every plate would be wiped clean.
People didn’t eat because they particularly wanted pancakes or hot dogs; they ate because they didn’t know when they might eat again. Hunger wasn’t an abstraction; it was a relentless presence that shaped how they moved through the world.
Years later, when we began the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, I saw that same vulnerability again.
In those early days, when we partnered with JCEPT, any extra sandwich would disappear instantly, not out of greed, but out of fear: the fear of not knowing when the next meal would arrive. Hunger humbles the human spirit.
It strips away everything but the most basic truth: people cannot focus on recovery, training, or employment if they are worried about their next meal.
That is why the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) matters so profoundly. SNAP is not a handout; it is a bridge to independence.
At NJRC, we have worked with over 25,000 men and women determined to reclaim their lives after incarceration, addiction, or military service.
Most come to us without IDs, housing, or discernible job skills. SNAP provides sustenance at the most fragile moment in their journey, allowing them to concentrate on treatment, job readiness, and learning a trade. It nourishes the body so the spirit can heal.
Today, NJRC continues this mission each Friday from 10 a.m. to noon, when our participants and community members may visit our sites for food.
We do this not as charity, but as solidarity, with the understanding that food is the foundation upon which recovery and dignity are built.
SNAP and Medicaid work together to make that foundation possible. Medicaid delivers critical access to addiction treatment, mental-health care, and medical services; SNAP ensures that people can eat while they do the hard work of transformation.
Together, these programs create the conditions for self-sufficiency and success.
That’s why proposed restrictions on Medicaid are so dangerous. The most damaging impacts won’t be felt until 2027, but the harm will be real and lasting.
These cuts threaten to undo the progress of thousands of persons rebuilding their lives. Denying food or healthcare at a time when people are striving to work and heal is not fiscal prudence; it is a moral failure.
We are blessed in New Jersey to have leaders who understand this truth. Governor Phil Murphy, Speaker Craig Coughlin, and Senate President Nick Scutari have each made fighting hunger and strengthening safety nets a centerpiece of their public service.
They have demonstrated that compassion and good governance are not opposites, but partners.
Through SNAP, Medicaid, and the work of nonprofit organizations, New Jersey has chosen to build bridges rather than barriers.
The measure of a community is how it treats those at the margins. I have seen what happens when we extend that bridge: people learn, work, reunite with their families, and give back to their neighbors.
Hunger must not be the price of redemption. SNAP is an investment in human potential.
It is nourishment for those walking the hard road home, and a reminder that a Second Chance can begin with something as simple and as sacred as a meal.