Letter: Representative needed to put Minnesota families first

Published 8:05 pm Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Representative Hagedorn talks out of both sides of his mouth, which is hard to do when his foot is in it so often. Last May at an invitation-only meet-and-greet, he told Worthington residents that he was glad to live in a district where no one went to bed hungry.

When community residents visited his office to point out the shocking rates of student hunger in Mankato, rates widely reported on in local newspapers, Hagedorn, and his office staff, complained they were misquoted, that the press was to blame. He was praising both the productivity of the Minnesota farmer and the strength of our social safety net especially SNAP, which is, after all, an ag program not just a welfare program. But now he supports Trump’s revisions to SNAP that would purge thousands of Minnesotans from SNAP’s roles.

Hagedorn isn’t just contradicting himself. He’s abandoning a program that supports farmers and families in southern Minnesota. This policy means 983 students in Nicollet County will lose not only food stamps but their free/reduced price lunches — 3770 in Blue Earth County. When they lose those lunches, they also no longer qualify for a host of other resources. They’ll have to pay full-rate to play football or hockey or do theater. Many charities use qualification for SNAP as a criteria for their services as well.

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When it comes to standing up for Minnesota or supporting Trump, Hagedorn once again chooses Trump. We need a representative that will put Minnesota families first and open his door to listen and hear from local residents.

Andrew Vollmer

Mankato