Jubilee USA endorsed US and Puerto Rico religious leaders letter to Congress on nutrition and child poverty aid for Puerto Rico is highlighted in the Crux. Eric LeCompte is also quoted on Puerto Rico's struggles with natural disaster recovery and economic crises. Read an excerpt below and click here for the full story.

US bishops endorse Puerto Rico’s appeal for equal food assistance

By John Lavenburg

The letter was endorsed by Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. It was also endorsed by Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of faith-based development and debt relief advocacy organizations.

The latest U.S. Census Bureau data reflecting statistics from 2021 show that the median household income in Puerto Rico was just under $22,000, and about 42 percent of the island’s 3.2 million citizens live in poverty – well higher than the national average of 12.6 percent.

Compared to SNAP, the food assistance program in Puerto Rico is called the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP). Unlike funding for SNAP, which is fluid based on need, NAP must operate within a fixed budget each fiscal year, and therefore often falls short of providing the proper level of nutritional assistance when disaster strikes.

Read more here.