Jamira Burley on what it’s like to rely on food assistance programs like SNAP

Jamira Burley (Leading with Conviction™ 2015) writes, “Most people can’t imagine what it’s like to skip a meal. To feel the clinking, hollow pain of an empty belly. To try to sleep through hunger. To walk through a school day with a headache, not because you’re sick, but because there just wasn’t enough food in the house. Most people don’t know what it’s like to sit with that kind of uncertainty. I do.

Government programs … are proven investments in people’s stability and potential.

“SNAP, WIC, free lunch, school breakfast; those weren’t handouts. They were survival tools, life rafts, safety nets that caught my family during our hardest chapters. They gave my mother just enough breathing room to keep going, to keep surviving, and they gave me the stability to focus in school and be a kid who could still dream, even in the middle of chaos.

“Years later, I’m degree(ed) up, building something meaningful, and I carry that past everywhere. Not with shame, but with deep clarity. My story reveals how the right support at the right time can change a life. Millions of us are proof of that impact.

“Here’s my argument: government programs aren’t just charity, they are proven investments in people’s stability and potential. When we ensure basic needs like food are met, we don’t create dependency but rather build stronger communities.”

Read the full article on Jamira’s Substack.