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The Food Research and Action Center reports that 21 percent of Arizonans say they lacked money to buy food at least once last year. That ranks Arizona 14^th in the United States. FRAC President Jim Weill says the benefit levels of the SNAP, or food stamp program, aren’t high enough to enough to enable people to purchase enough food.

“We have a lot of families in which parents are skipping meals so kids can get enough to eat,” Weill said. “We know from the research that means that parents and kids aren’t doing as well at work and at schools as they would be doing if they were consistently eating a healthy diet.”

Weill says improving benefits starts with passing a Farm Bill in this legislative year that will protect and strengthen the SNAP program. That’s one topic at a National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. that began on Sunday.