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Home » Diets that Work » ‘A terrible time to be poor’: Cuts to SNAP benefits will hit 700,000 food-insecure Americans – USA TODAY

PORTLAND, Oregon Alisa Holteen likes to play a game where she imagines a life different from the ones shes currently living.

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

She posed this question recently at the homeless camp she lives at in Northeast Portland, chatting with friends outside her tent about what it would be like to have an unlimited supply of cash. Certainly, theyd always be warm and clean, and have a roof over their heads, they agreed. Perhaps best of all, she recalled wistfully, shed never go hungry.

Holteen, 32, is one of an estimated 36 million Americans on food stamps, a federal benefits program that President Donald Trumps administration wants to cut dramatically.

There are lots of potential changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on the table, but earlier this month the Trump administration announced the first major changewillbe implemented early next year, limitingbenefits available to able-bodied adults between the ages of 18-49 like Holteen who do not have dependents. The change will not affectchildren and their parents, people over 50, people with disabilities or pregnant women.

Hunger is a problem across the U.S., with 37 million people suffering from food insecurity.That means roughly 1 in 10 Americans are hungry. And nearly one-third, or 11 million,are children.

Iyonna Logan of Denver carries a box of food to her car after visiting a Food Bank of the Rockies distribution on Dec. 19, 2019.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

Abby Leibman, president and CEO of MAZON, a Los Angeles-basedJewish organization committed to fighting hunger, says whether they realize it or not, every single person is connected to someone else who struggles with food insecurity.

These are people hiding in plain sight, she says, terrified of raising their hands and self-identifying as someone who needs help, especially in a climate where theyre being vilified.

The rule changes will cut SNAP by roughly $4.2 billionover five years, and directly affect nearly 700,000 able-bodied Americans, according to the Urban Institute.

The charitable food sector food banks, food pantries andsoup kitchens is bracing for a surge in need to make up for the loss in federal benefits, whichmeans such organizationswould need to nearly double their budgets and output to make up for the gap, according to MAZON.

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

WATCH: Joe Burrow's Heisman speech helps drive more than $100K in donations to food bank

Other proposals to cut the program include limiting deductions for shelter and utility costs (which are considered when someone signs up for SNAP) and changing the way states automatically enroll people who are already receiving other forms of federal aid.

Supporters say the move protects U.S.taxpayers bymotivating anyone who can work toget a joband support themselves.

We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an indefinitely giving hand, said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue in a press release announcing the change. He went on to cite the national unemployment rate of 3.6%.

Now is the time for every work-capable American to find employment, the release read.

Holteen says its not that simple.

Shes been out of work for almost four years since she moved back to Oregon from Kansas. When a family member in Portland fell ill, Holteen says she quit her job in fast food and moved home. Shortly after that, her mothers boyfriend who paid the rent at their house left abruptly, leaving Holteen, her girlfriend and her mom in a bind. They couldn't pay rent and got evicted.Theyve been homeless since, living outside with her dog, a 65-pound mutt named Colby Jack Cheese who she also has to find food for.

Clients of the Food Bank of the Rockies line up to collect food distribution in Denver on Dec. 19, 2019. The Trump administration is changing food stamp requirements in a move that poverty experts say will increase demand on food banks nationwide.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

Holteen struggles to leave the homeless camp to find a job,worried about abandoning her mom and girlfriend. She considers herself their protector because she says shes one of the few non-addicts at the camp. Shes looked for a job but its rough out there, she says especially when your stomach is growling.

Without food, she says, you cant think.

Right now, Holteen visits food banks around Portland three to five times a month, but she anticipates shell go more if and when she gets kicked off her benefits.

Its a scenariofood pantriessay they aren'tready for. At St. Rita's Catholic Church in Northeast Portland, whereHolteen visits the food pantry once a month, they're already talking about how they'll combat the increasedneed.

Its gonna be an enormous challenge for us to figure out how to cover this financially, says Chris Kresek, a St. Ritas food pantry volunteer for 20-plus years. If we tried to make up for how much people are going to lose, wed spend what we have in the bank in two months. Were gonna have to think of a new strategy.

Robert Campbell, managing director of the Chicago-based food bank network Feeding America, says the Trump administration did what Congress would not, when legislators rejected similar cuts in the 2018 Farm Bill. And while food banks across the U.S. serve 46 million people annually, SNAP benefits provide nine times as many meals, according to Feeding America. That will be almost difficultto replicate.

For those who are losing benefits, it can be absolutely devastating, Campbell says. Charity cannot make up the gap in food assistance from the SNAP program.

Campbell says the Trump administrations repeated efforts to clamp down onfood stamp benefits showa clear pattern of taking a political stance without regard for how it will affect poor Americans.

Taking food away will not make them more employable, Campbell says. It will just make them hungry.

In rural Colorado, Lance Cheslock has worked for the nonprofit homeless shelter and food bank La Puente in Alamosa for 30 years, watching employment rise and fall with the economy. Hes also watched the potato-farming area'sslow shift away from good-paying jobs to service-industry positions paying minimum wage, with inconsistent hours and few benefits. Adjusted for inflation, the median family income in Alamosa County has dropped $2,000 since 2000, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Alamosa County unemployment rate of just 3% obscures the pocket of un- and under-employment in La Puente's larger service area, which covers a multi-countyrural area of Colorado that's the size of Massachusetts, he says. Of the approximately 48,000 people who live there, he says about 10,000 get food assistance through La Puente or other organizationsat least once annually.

This is just going to be a disaster for us, to try to come up with food that offsets what the government would have provided. As a community, we will suffer the consequences of a malnourished population, Cheslock says. This is one more nudge, one more thing that will hurt."

Gabriela and Brian Godoy feed their one-year-old son, Elian, bread after visiting a Food Bank of the Rockies food distribution in Denver on Dec. 19, 2019. The Trump administration is changing food stamp requirements in a move that poverty experts say will increase demand on food banks nationwide.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

Cheslock says he and other leaders ofLa Puente, or The Bridge in English,understand that for most people, a good job is a pathway 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 workforce ready. They might have struggled with homelessness, substance abuse or mental disorders that make it hard for them to hold down a job without extra help.

Lack of reliable transportation is also a factor. For people who live in areas with heavily seasonal work, its an especially tricky equation to solve, he said.

To motivate someone to do something they cant possibly do is going to misfire, Cheslock says.

The cuts have been slammed by Democraticlegislators at every level.

Last year, Massachusettsstate Rep. Natalie Higgins, 31, challenged herself to feed both her and her fianc for five days using only food stamp benefits that worked out to just$45.She knew it would be hard. She didnt realize how hard and 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 more costly canned ones.

I really wanted to show I understood how inadequate these benefits are, says Higgins, a Democrat who represents Leominster, a city of about 42,000 that had an unemployment rate of nearly 5% at the start of 2018. Leominster, about 45 miles west of Boston, has a poverty rate of 13.3% and a per capita income of just $32,000.

For many folks, SNAP doesnt even come close to getting them to the end of the month, she says.

Higgins and her fianc ate lots of rice and beans during their food stamp challenge, supplemented with frozen veggies, oatmeal and peanut butter. Fresh fruits and vegetables were out of their price range. After only a few days, she developed a nagging headache and felt run-down physical symptoms of a poor diet that also caused her to lose four pounds.

When youre making minimum wage and housing costs keep going up and up and up, you just cannot make ends meet, Higgins says. I still cant wrap my head around how cruel we can be as a country to take away this food assistance.

Clutching a pink ticket signaling he's eligible, a man waits to collect his allocation from a Food Bank of the Rockies distribution in Denver, Colorado, on Dec. 19.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

That the news ofimpending cuts came around the holidays seems especially callous to some.

This is a terrible time to be poor, says Leibman, who leads MAZON. To double down on their loss by saying, And soon were gonna take food away from you, thats a terrible thing to communicate to human beings. I just think America is better than that.

AJay Scipio,51, is the program manager of the Northeast Food Emergency Program in Northeast Portland, a large food pantry that in 2018served more than 11,000 families. Scipio took the job a year ago andworried at first that she didnt have the emotional bandwidth for it. The need in the area is both overwhelming and heartbreaking: In one recent three-month span, the program served 8,700 individuals.

She'sterrified to think of the future. Thursday afternoon, she announced new rules at the Northeast Food Emergency Program: Starting in January, clients can only come twice a month to shop the pantry. Previously, theyd had unlimited access.

Scipio rolls her eyes at the Trumps administrations claim of a thriving economy: The economy might be booming for some people, she says, but it is not booming for immigrant families or low-income families. This booming economy has not made its way to the margins.

A'Jay Scipio, the program manager of the Northeast Food Emergency Program in Portland, Oregon, walks through the food pantry in mid-December as she helps clients look for special Christmas treats. "This is not a poor people problem," Scipio says of the estimated 700,000 people who could lose their SNAP benefits in the spring. "There are hard-working people, middle-class people, people with good jobs, who are hungry every day."(Photo: Lindsay Schnell, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

But even with that caveat, Scipio argues, this is an issue that affects everyday Americans.

"This is not a poor people problem, she says. There are hard-working people, middle-class people, people with good jobs, who are hungry every day.

Tess Robertson and Chris DeFrance have been shopping at the Northeast Food Emergency Program for a little over a year. They only take non-perishable food, because theyre currently living in their 98 Toyota Camry. Milk and frozen meat are out of the question, which means they have to make more trips to the store, buying in smaller quantities, which uses up their food stamp allotment faster. They dont have access to a kitchen and regularly find themselves eating inside corner convenience stores.

Robertson, 28, recentlygot a job sorting mail at a local Amazon plant, but its only part-time and pays just $15.10 an hour. She says she applied to dozens of jobsand was turned down for all of them. Shes trying to get bumped up to full-timeat Amazon. Shes worried it wont happen before the SNAP cuts kick in.

DeFrance, 36, is technically able-bodied, too, but says hes still recovering from an injury suffered at his previous job fixing cars. A few months ago, DeFrance says he was stabbed by a drug addict while working on a car. He hasnt been able to find steady work since because the PTSD is horrible.To help himreacclimate to being around groups of strangers, he, along withRobertson, started volunteering at the pantry.

A heroin addict whos been in recovery for three years, DeFrance tries not to think about the spring, when he and Robertsons lives could get even more challenging.

I try not to think about the future too much because thinking about that stuff makes you stressed. And when youre an addict and youre stressed, you can relapse, he says.

Right now its just about survival.

Resharde Law collects food for his family at a Food Bank of the Rockies distribution in Denver, Colorado, on Dec. 19. Law, who works as a mover, wore a Santa hat in an effort to spread cheer during the distribution.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

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'A terrible time to be poor': Cuts to SNAP benefits will hit 700,000 food-insecure Americans - USA TODAY

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Home » Diets that Work » ‘A terrible time to be poor’: Cuts to SNAP benefits will hit 700,000 food-insecure Americans – USA TODAY