The SNAP crisis exposes a failing system that punishes the very people it was meant to protect.
Throughout the United States, the millions of families that rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—which make up 12.3 percent of Americans—have spent at least 10 days without them. The uncertainties about whether they will return, and when, has left families desperate. For many, the crisis has reinforced what they’ve long felt: The nation’s social safety programs are failing to meet real, everyday needs—and across Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Americans are growing disillusioned with politicians who can’t protect their most basic ones.
For many disabled Americans, losing SNAP also means losing the nutritional needs that help keep them out of the floundering U.S. healthcare system. They shared with Ms. a glimpse into what the past 10 days without SNAP have looked like, and what millions of Americans who rely on these programs actually need.
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Nearly four of five households that rely on SNAP include a child, a person with a disability or an elderly person. The cuts to SNAP are a direct cut to the most vulnerable populations in the U.S., who often also rely on other services such as Medicaid or Social Security Disability Insurance (“Disability”). Almost half of SNAP recipients are children.
Matt Chapman—a 62-year-old from Waukee, Iowa, who relies on Disability and his sister’s SNAP funding—was already dependent on food banks. He is a volunteer in his community and had worked in restaurants his whole life before a spinal fusion left him unable to work. He also has health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, which requires medication.
Chapman cares for his sister Amy, who is 65 and a SNAP recipient. Amy has had cancer twice, leaving her unable to work, and she must go to a methadone clinic once a week. She has been struggling to switch to Medicare from Medicaid and, for signup reasons, has been left without insurance until February. Amy relies on a widow’s pension and $90 a month in SNAP.
Prior to the government shutdown, Matt Chapman went to the food pantry four times a week to provide for them, and once a month for a monthly package.
Without the food pantry, Matt says, “We probably wouldn’t be able to feed ourselves.” After paying rent, Amy has only $400 for other needs; the $90 in SNAP is essential for them both.
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Caretakers of children, who make up nearly half of all SNAP recipients, are also struggling to find their next meal for their families.
Ebony (last name intentionally withheld), a single mom of four, works full time for the Department of Health and Human Services and at her own restorative counseling business. She helps individuals in Detroit’s healthcare system, and many of her clients are dependent on services like SNAP. She recently graduated with a double master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and school counseling, with a concentration in substance abuse. Ebony herself has disabled children, one of whom is autistic.
Ebony says many of the people she works with “are low income to no income”: working families, families with single parents, grandparents who care for their grandchildren, and other varieties of people from many socioeconomic backgrounds.
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Grace Robinson is a 30-year-old student who lives in the Pocono Mountains. In 2015, she had her first set of brain lesions that caused her to be severely disabled. She’s also experienced heart failure and gastrointestinal failure, and has a genetic metabolic disease. She has been a SNAP and Medicaid recipient for the past 10 years.
“Healthcare is a big part of my life. My time is spent going to doctors and taking care of myself. As of a few years ago, I started being able to take college classes again, because I had previously left college [because of the first set of brain lesions]” said Grace. “I go to community college now online, and it allows me the freedom to still take classes and take care of my health.”
For Robinson, services like SNAP are not only what keep her alive, but also have autonomy and return to school.
If I lose benefits, am I going to be able to remain going to school?
Grace Robinson
Significant Strain on Food Pantries
“In Michigan, we have been told that full benefits will be held,” Ebony told Ms. “If people call in [to the Department of Health and Human Services], we are to let them know about food pantries and just do the best that we can, as far as getting them food, and resources on how to get food.”
Despite the potential for emergency funding, she has not been able to provide her clients with any concrete answers.
Michigan’s food pantries had already seen an increase in demand due to a high rate of layoffs and increasing inflation. Now the pantries are swamped after the legal back-and-forth over SNAP. A Missouri food bank has had to turn folks away after they waited more than six hours for food.
The uncertainty in headlines—whether emergency funds will be used to fund SNAP for November, either partially or in full—has also caused distress for those who are waiting to hear if they will be able to feed their families using SNAP in the near future.
They’re thinking about next week. Will they have food? Will they be hungry?
Grace Robinson
Though Matt Chapman goes to a Waukee food pantry Monday through Thursday, he explained, “[My sister and I are] will be going out without something … and on the weekends, [and] by the end of the month, [my sister and I] are both broke.”
Without SNAP, Chapman anticipates only being able to eat “beans and rice or macaroni and cheese, you know… shelf stable stuff. It’s hard. We can hardly get any fresh produce if we don’t have any money, unless they have something in the food pantry.”
More than a quarter million people depend on SNAP in Iowa, 2 million in Pennsylvania, and 1.4 million in Michigan. Matt Chapman and Grace Robinson—who have yet to receive the November SNAP benefits they need—and Ebony’s clients are seeing the impacts in their day-to-day life for themselves and in their communities. November is typically the busiest month for food pantries, and now resources are even more scarce.
Chapman described how in Waukee, the food pantry he volunteers at and utilizes for groceries used to have 18 people come weekly for a monthly grocery package. Now, 60 people come daily.
As for daily grocery packages, the pantry used to provide 80 on an average day; they now have to provide 120.
Rescue food—which is the leftover goods from grocery stores and other donations that are expired or soon will be—used to be allotted up to three per person. Now, people are only allowed to take one item.
“[The pantry’s demand has] gone up well over 100 percent,” Chapman told Ms. “The big concern is, how long will this last?”
“I have friends right now without SNAP seriously worried that they won’t be able to eat without food banks, and that’s a terrifying thing.” Robinson said. “SNAP helps me get the foods that I’m able to eat because of my disability. I can’t just eat normal meals … My stomach doesn’t work great, my intestines also don’t work great.”
Food pantries simply cannot replace the scope or scale of SNAP benefits. Chapman says filling the void left by SNAP requires exponential increases in volunteers and an unsustainable level of donations. Food banks simply do not have the funding nor ability to fill the gap—merely one month of SNAP benefits is more than what a food bank can provide annually. Not only will they fail to meet the demand of SNAP, but disabled individuals will continue to be neglected if they can’t acquire what they specifically need to remain healthy.
“When you’re sick, it’s not necessarily that you can just eat what you get [at] food banks,” Robinson said.
As for what it looks like at the pantries, Chapman is grateful for the volunteers and community members working there, but anxious for a long-term solution. “They are getting more donations right now. But is that sustainable? How long is that going to go on? At what point are [donors] going to [say], ‘okay, they should be all right, for now.’ That is a big concern. … They’re packed down there, and they’re tired.”
He says for every meal food banks are able to provide, SNAP provides nine. “Even if the food bank doubles or triples… that’s just going to drop the missed SNAP meals down to five or six [missed meals], right? And that would be the best case scenario,” said Chapman.
Yet what other choice is left for Americans waiting in limbo for SNAP benefits to reload?
“I have friends who already had to go to the food bank because they knew [SNAP was] not going to last,” said Robinson. “They’re thinking about next week. Will they have food? Will they be hungry?”
Forcing Tough Decisions
Without SNAP, families on tight budgets are forced to make increasingly hard decisions about what is essential.
“Today, we had to pick up some Polident [denture cleaner]. That’s like $14. We had to get some laundry detergent—even the bargain stuff is $10. All those little needs: toilet paper, toothpaste, all the things that you take for granted daily,” Chapman told Ms. “Sometimes we run out of money and [think], what are we going to do? I’ve got some good neighbors. Sometimes we barter and they’ll loan us a roll of toilet paper. Then when we get some we’ll give them one or two back.”
With grocery prices going as high as they are, I don’t know what [political leaders] expect people to do. … [They] don’t care about these people.
Matt Chapman
The anxiety of losing SNAP affects recipients who rely on them. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over it, which is hard,” said Robinson, who is disabled. “When I lose sleep, it does affect my illness. … I worry about school. I keep thinking, if I lose benefits, am I going to be able to remain going to school?”
“SNAP comes in to bridge that gap there,” Chapman said. “With grocery prices going as high as they are, I don’t know what [political leaders] expect people to do… [They] don’t care about these people.”
“It’s frustrating to see children have to go without. It’s horrifying to see the elderly have to go without, or choose between cutting their medication in half and only taking half of what they’re actually supposed to take, because that’s what they need to get by.”
Battling Misinformation
As for the misperceptions about those who receive SNAP, “there’s just a ton of misinformation. … Most of the people on SNAP work.” Chapman said, “the actual fraud is [about] 3 percent which, for any program, is amazing.”
President Trump has weaponized stereotypes about SNAP to justify cutting benefits to populations of Americans—claiming many are able-bodied but simply unwilling to work, or that undocumented folks are taking advantage of the system. In reality, 90 percent of SNAP recipients were born in the U.S., and 96 percent are citizens.
Grace Robinson, Matt Chapman and many of Ebony’s clients are unable to work due to disability. One in five SNAP recipients are non-elderly with a disability, and SNAP is the only way they can feed themselves.
“People think if you’re receiving SNAP, you just have all this money that you can spend on whatever. But people who use SNAP [are] really kind of getting by. You’re budgeting it and making it last,” said Robinson. “People look at recipients as freeloaders, and that’s not true. People are working [and] on SNAP, or disabled and on SNAP, or trying to go to school to better their lives [while] receiving SNAP.”
“Being disabled and being on SNAP, you’re between a hot rock and a hard place if those benefits don’t come in,” said Chapman.
Twenty percent of Americans with a disability rely on SNAP to survive.
“The problem is, the rent always eats first, or the house payment is going to eat first. After that? Are you going to [get your] medicine?” Chapman said. “No, we [have to pay] our utilities…. then you [think], ‘Okay, I’ve only got enough for either food or my medicine.’”
“For me, healthcare is still hard. I work several jobs to maintain my home, and it’s still not affordable, and I don’t even qualify for Medicaid,” said Ebony, who is not on SNAP herself, but has many clients who are.
“I have children who are diagnosed with things that [require] medications and certain things that they can’t go without. It is extremely expensive on a monthly basis,” Ebony said. “It’s like I am neglecting myself due to money.”
When asked if she felt like she was included in the conversations about SNAP as a disabled person, Robinson replied, “Oh, not at all.”
“Without the welfare system in general, I would not be able to be a student once I became very permanently disabled,” said Robinson. “I initially really fell through the cracks, and we didn’t think I was going to live for a bit… Without [these services], I wouldn’t even be alive or functioning, let alone a student. These services help me to be a student and be able to eat and not worry about what my future is, because the goal is to finish college and have a job where I’ll be able to provide for myself, and hopefully be on good insurance and not need to receive SNAP. We don’t want this to be a permanent thing. But without it, it all goes away.”
I initially really fell through the cracks, and we didn’t think I was going to live for a bit… Without [these services], I wouldn’t even be alive or functioning, let alone a student.
Grace Robinson
Robinson said, “There are a lot of services and gaps when you’re disabled that you don’t really think about, and those are expensive… A lot of my friends are really struggling. They’re rationing out stuff, and that’s hard. They’re worried about where they’re going to get groceries. When you’re receiving SNAP benefits, you’re already looking at sales, and where the best prices are, and things like that.”
“A lot of the families in this area [with children] that have the same disease as me are struggling a lot because there’s gaps. They have to miss work [often] because nursing can’t come. That means they have to take care of their kid all day. It’s medically complex stuff—IVs and medications. These families get hit a lot [because] insurance doesn’t cover a lot of things, and now it’s affecting their food… Kids need to eat. And sick kids, if they don’t eat, they get a lot sicker, and that’s the hard part. A lot of families are worried about long term effects. This could be detrimental if you know their kids don’t get the nutrition that they need.”
“What’s really frustrating with the government shutdown is they don’t want to make the Affordable Care Act tax credits permanent. That’s a really terrifying thing,” said Robinson.
SNAP’s Future Under the Republican Budget Bill
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the GOP and signed by President Trump will demand more paperwork, increase the age qualifications for adults, and make it harder for veterans, Americans experiencing homelessness, youth leaving foster care and caregivers. More than 22 million families will see a decrease in their SNAP benefits, many losing them completely.
“Why should people [have to] worry about healthcare or eating? Why is that a trade off? Healthcare is always this bargaining chip in politics.” Robinson said, “But that’s our lives. It’s very frustrating that Republicans are refusing to come to the table to talk or negotiate.”
“Disabled people, we’re just frustrated because we’re very overlooked in all of this, and we shouldn’t be worrying about eating or having to lose healthcare,” said Robinson.
… [Republicans’ budget bill] was created someone who hasn’t had to struggle, who doesn’t know about having to take money from [one place] to sacrifice [another], or to neglect your healthcare because you’ve got to worry about putting food on the table for your family.
Ebony
“It’s frustrating for me as a person who worked in the restaurant industry and how hard on my body [it was],” said Matt. “I didn’t get that good of a compensation. Now that I’m older, and I’m relying on these [services]… I see the [One Big Beautiful] Bill and… how they want to cut SNAP [and other] programs. It [feels] like you didn’t compensate us that well, we created all this wealth for you, and now the very same people we created that wealth for, we’re going to transfer our benefits to them in tax cuts… [Seeing the] transfer of wealth [from] the people that created the wealth in the first place, to even enrich [the wealthy] more. I don’t know what they expect people to do… I’m gobsmacked. I can’t believe this.”
“The Big Beautiful Bill does not work. It doesn’t represent the middle class people or the population,” Ebony explains.
As far as Ebony’s clients, “I have been getting an influx of calls about this Big Beautiful Bill, and even before [it, things were] still not affordable, especially for the seniors.” Ebony said, “It’s just unfortunate that [the One Big Beautiful Bill was created by] someone who hasn’t had to struggle, who doesn’t know about having to take money from [one place] to sacrifice [another], or to neglect your healthcare because you’ve got to worry about putting food on the table for your family,” said Ebony.
“Seeing the impact on these increases in premiums of people who are in that fiscal cliff area [and this] thing with SNAP. I think that was a big driver of the election [Nov. 4], and that’s what I am hopeful for,” said Matt Chapman.
“Hopefully politicians can figure it out,” Robinson said, “put issues aside and just finally, put their constituents first.”
Great Job Maya Olson & the Team @ Ms. Magazine Source link for sharing this story.
