July 31, 2025 04:01 PM UTC

Food Bank Warned Gabe Evans: ‘Need Will Get Worse’ if Trump’s Budget Bill Passed

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Follow-up to last week’s gaslighting — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally published at the Colorado Times Recorder

A spokesman for the Weld Food Bank says they made it clear to Congressman Gabe Evans (R-CO) that the Medicaid and SNAP food aid cuts in the budget he supported will make their lines longer, not shorter.

Weld Food Bank Communications Director Weston Edmunds summarized his team’s conversation in response to an inquiry by the Colorado Times Recorder about Evans’ public statements about the food bank last week.

In an interview last week, Evans faced tough questions about his support of drastic cuts to Medicaid via Trump’s budget bill, cuts the food bank says will increase need substantially.

Colorado Public Radio’s Bente Birkeland shared the concerns of one employee who said she doesn’t feel like the food bank will be able to deliver for working families in Weld County the way they want to and the way the community needs them to.

Evans responded by sharing part of his own conversation with the nonprofit from his visit last month.

“So I sat down and had this exact same conversation with the Weld County Food Bank,” Evans told CPR. “And you know what they told me? They said, ‘Gabe, we need to cut down,’ and the line he was referring to was the line of folks that were coming to the food bank. He said, ‘We need to cut down on the line.’ And the way you cut down on the line of folks that are relying on the food bank is you fix the economy. ”

Evans went on to list the ways he claims Trump’s budget bill will improve the economy, all of which focus on tax cuts stimulating the economy. He did not mention the massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, but did repeat his assertion that the Weld Food Bank wanted to return to serving fewer clients, as they did prior to the pandemic.

“Our meeting with Rep. Evans was strictly informational,” said Edmunds. “We communicated the intense need we are seeing as well as emphasized how the need will get worse should the cuts to SNAP and Medicaid go through. These cuts that have been passed will make the line longer, not shorter.

“Certainly, we would like to see the line shorter because that would be a strong indication that our neighbors are doing better and do not need our assistance. Cutting vital social safety nets like SNAP and Medicaid will not accomplish that for our neighbors.”

Now, with the budget bill signed into law, the Weld Food Bank has started planning for the longer lines of hungry families they know will need their help. The anticipated price tag is in the millions.

“We estimate that we need to raise an additional $2 million on top of our regular budget to provide a well-balanced food package through our Emergency Food Program and Mobile Food Pantry,” says Edmunds.

Evans has said he wants to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from the Medicaid budget. Yesterday his office released a statement announcing his co-sponsorship of a House resolution “honoring the 60th anniversary of Medicaid and reaffirming Congress’s commitment to preserve and strengthen the program for the most vulnerable Americans.”

The statement cites “frequent eligibility checks and work requirements” as ways to “ensure its long-term viability for future generations of Americans. Health care experts say that these new restrictions overwhelmingly remove eligible patients from Medicaid due to increased paperwork.