'Terrible time to be poor': 700 Americans will be affected by food stamp cuts

Alice Holtin loves to play a game in which she imagines a life different from the one in which she currently lives. Writes about this Yahoo! News.

Фото: Depositphotos

“What would it be like,” she wonders, “to never worry about money?”

She asked this question recently in a homeless camp where she lives in Northeast Portland, talking with friends outside her tent about what would happen if they had an unlimited supply of money. Of course, they would always be warm, clean and have a roof over their heads, they agreed. Perhaps best of all is that they would then never be hungry.

32-year-old Holtin is one of about 36 million Americans who use SNAP food stamps.

There are many potential changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), with US President Donald Trump's administration announcing the first major changes will be implemented in early 2020, limiting the benefits available to able-bodied adults ages 18-49 - like Holtin - who have no dependents. The changes will not affect children and their parents, people over 50, people with disabilities or pregnant women.

Hunger is a problem in the US: 37 million people suffer from food insecurity. This means that approximately 1 out of 10 Americans have difficulty buying food and are starving. And almost a third, or 11 million, are children.

Abby Leibman, president and CEO of MAZON, a Los Angeles-based Jewish organization that fights hunger, says, “Whether they realize it or not, every person is connected to someone struggling with food insecurity.”

These are people who are hiding in plain sight, they are afraid to ask for help, because they are condemned for it.

On the subject: Immigrants refuse food stamps for fear of not obtaining citizenship

Changes to the rules will reduce SNAP by about $ 4,2 billion over five years and will directly affect nearly 700 able-bodied Americans.

The charitable food sector—food banks, pantries and soup kitchens—such organizations will need to nearly double their budgets and output.

Critics say the move is Trump's latest move to limit food benefits for low-income Americans. Forty-four percent of food stamp recipients are working families, and 70% of them have children. They receive about $120 a month in benefits, and many use food pantries and food banks to supplement their benefits.

Other program reductions include limiting deductions for housing and utility bills (which are taken into account when someone receives SNAP food stamps) and changing the way that states automatically register people who already receive other forms of federal assistance.

Supporters say this move protects US taxpayers by motivating anyone who can work, get a job, and support themselves.

“We need to encourage people to lend a helping hand, but not allow them to become endlessly lending hands,” said USDA Commissioner Sonny Perdue. “Now is the time for every able-bodied American to find a job.”

Holtin says it's not that simple.

On the subject: What benefits can you expect in the US

She has been unemployed for almost four years since returning to Oregon from Kansas. When Holtin became ill, family members in Portland told her to quit her fast food job and move home. Shortly afterwards, her mother’s boyfriend, who was paying for the apartment, suddenly left, leaving Holtin, her friend and mother in a hopeless situation. They could not pay the rent and were evicted. Since then, they have been left homeless, living on the street with their dog, which also needs to be fed.

Holtin struggles to leave the homeless camp to find work, but is afraid to leave his mom. She's been looking for work, but "it's hard," she says, especially when your stomach is growling.

“Without food,” she says, “you can’t think.”

Right now, Holtin visits food banks in Portland three to five times a month, but she expects to do this more often if she is deprived of benefits.

St. Rita’s Catholic Church in northeast Portland, where Holtin visits the pantry once a month, is said to be struggling with increased demand.

“It's going to be a challenge for us to figure out how to cover this financially,” said Chris Krezek, a volunteer with the St. Rita food pantry for 20-plus years. – If we try to replace everything people lose, our pantry will be empty in 2 months. We need to think about a new strategy."

Robert Campbell, managing director of the Chicago-based food banking network Feeding America, said the Trump administration did what Congress would not have done when lawmakers rejected similar cuts in the 2018 farm bill.

Although food banks in the United States serve 46 million people each year, according to Feeding America, SNAP benefits provide nine times as much food. It will be very difficult to repay.

“For those who lose benefits, it can be absolutely devastating,” Campbell says. “Charities cannot fill the gap in food assistance from SNAP.”

Campbell says the repeated efforts by the Trump administration to limit the use of food stamps show a clear tendency to take a political position without considering how this will affect poor Americans.

“Food deprivation will not make them any more fit for work,” Campbell says. “It will just make them hungry.”

In Colorado, 30-year-old Lance Cheslok worked at La Puente Alamos, a non-profit homeless shelter and food bank, watching the rise and fall of employment in the economy.

“It’s just a disaster for us to try to replace food that makes up for what the government used to provide. As a community, we will suffer the consequences of malnutrition,” says Cheslock.

Cheslock says he and other La Puente leaders understand that for most people, a good job is the path out of poverty and toward self-sufficiency. The problem, he says, is that many of the “able-bodied” people targeted by the new restrictions are not ready to work. They may have struggled with homelessness, substance abuse, or mental health issues that made it difficult for them to hold down a job without additional help.

In 2018, Massachusetts legislator Natalie Higgins challenged herself to feed both her and her fiancé for five days using only food stamps, which cost just $45. She knew it would be difficult. But she had no idea how much—even though she had access to her own kitchen, a reliable car, and even a pressure cooker, which meant she could buy inexpensive dried beans instead of the more expensive canned ones.

On the subject: The White House tightens requirements for recipients of food stamps: it will affect hundreds of thousands of people

“I really wanted to show that I understand how inadequate these benefits are,” Higgins says. “For many people, SNAP doesn’t even last nearly a month,” she says.

Higgins and her fiancé ate a lot of rice and beans, supplemented with frozen vegetables, oatmeal and peanut butter. Fresh fruits and vegetables were out of their price range. A few days later, she developed a nagging headache and felt depressed—physical symptoms of poor nutrition.

“When you set a minimum wage and housing costs continue to rise, you just don't give people the ability to make ends meet,” Higgins says. “I still can’t understand how cruel we can be as a country to take away this food aid.”

The fact that the news of impending cuts came on holidays seems to some to be especially heartless.

“This is a terrible time for the poor,” Leibman says.

51-year-old A'Je Scipio is the program manager for the Northeast Portland Food Program in northeast Portland, a large food pantry that served more than 2018 families in 11. Scipio got a job a year ago and at first was worried that she did not have enough emotional bandwidth. The demand in this region is huge and heartbreaking: for one three-month period, the program serves 000 people.

She is afraid to think about the future. She announced new rules for the Northeast Food Program: starting in January, customers can only come to the store twice a month. Previously, they had unlimited access.

Scipio is skeptical of the Trump administration's claim of a thriving economy: "The economy may be thriving for some people," she says, "but it's not thriving for immigrant families or low-income families."

“This is not a problem for poor people,” she says. “There are hardworking people, middle class people, people with good jobs who are hungry every day.”

Tess Robertson and Chris DeFrance have been shopping in the Northeast Food Program for a little over a year. They only take perishable products, because they currently live in their 98-year-old Toyota Camry. About milk and frozen meat is out of the question, which means that they have to make more trips to the store, buying them in smaller quantities.

28-year-old Robertson recently got a job at a local Amazon plant, but on a part-time basis, and she is paid only $ 15,10 per hour. She says she has applied for dozens of jobs and hasn’t taken her everywhere. She's trying to get full time at Amazon. She worries that this will not happen before SNAP reductions begin.

DeFrance, 36, is also able-bodied, but says he is still recovering from an injury sustained in his previous car repair job. A few months ago, DeFranza stabbed a drug addict while he was repairing a car. He could not find a permanent job since then, because his PTSD is terrible. To help him get used to being with strangers again, he and Robertson began volunteering in the pantry.

Heroin formerly addicted DeFrance tries not to think about spring when his and Robertson’s lives can become even more complicated.

“I try not to think about the future too much because thinking about it makes you nervous. And when you're an addict and you're stressed, you can relapse,” he says. “It’s just survival.”

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