SNAP Benefits Cut: How ‘Grocery Buddies’ Are Saving Families From Hunger During The Government Shutdown

SNAP Benefits Cut: Given that her body serves both of her children in different ways, Gabrielle, a nursing mother of a toddler with another on the way, understands the importance of getting the correct nutrition.

However, as the second-longest government shutdown in US history jeopardizes her family’s access to a vital food aid program, the 21-year-old mother is concerned about what the next weeks may hold for her family.

Will ‘Grocery Buddies’ Be Enough To Cover SNAP Losses For Millions of Families

As one of the 42 million Americans who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the official name for food stamps, Gabrielle requested that media only use her first name because she believes that requiring help is stigmatized. However, Gabrielle finds herself straining her family’s little resources to keep her refrigerator stocked as SNAP payments are scheduled to end next month.

She said that “SNAP benefits are a must right now,” noting that she is now unemployed and that her fiancé’s workload has been light.

Neighbors are now helping one another out as “grocery buddies” via online forums that are often used to discover handymen suggestions, missing pets, or to buy and sell gently used items, providing a patchwork solution for families in need throughout the nation.

This is how it operates: On social media, neighbors share their desire to be a “grocery buddy” and support a family that is in danger of losing SNAP benefits in public forums or neighborhood organizations. Those who are interested are asked to send a private message to the poster. They work together to come up with a grocery solution that benefits both of them.

Each partnership may need a different kind of assistance: Sometimes “grocery buddies” go shopping with each other, and other times they go to the grocery store together and shop together. In order to provide their counterparts agency and control during an uncertain period, some “grocery buddies” give them gift cards.

The grassroots movement has gained momentum in recent days as letters requesting and offering aid being cut, copied, and pasted across small and large towns, bringing neighbors together and locating individuals in need of practical support.

This week, Gabrielle, a resident of West Virginia, hesitantly raised her hand in a neighborhood Facebook group, facing the stress of the approaching holidays and the possibility of losing SNAP aid.

Gabrielle said that she didn’t want to be judged due of her circumstances and that she “almost didn’t want to comment because I knew other people were going to see it.”

In the end, she concluded that if it meant supporting her family, it was worth a try.”I would like it done for me.”
As of May, SNAP, a vital component of the country’s safety net, offers members an average monthly payment of $188 per person. However, the US Department of Agriculture has said that it lacks the money to pay $8 billion in food stamp payouts for November due to the government shutdown.

Because governments usually provide the benefits on a rolling basis throughout the month, recipients will experience the effects at different times. While some won’t be impacted until later in November, others may start missing paychecks as early as Saturday.

 

There aren’t many viable options: Although food pantries and other food aid programs are available to Americans, increasing food costs and growing need have put strain on these organizations in recent years.

Community assistance will be crucial now more than ever, Hatteras Island, North Carolina resident Micah Iverson told media. “We’re all on the same team here at the end of the day.”

Iverson shared on social media on Sunday that he would want to be a “grocery buddy” to someone in his close-knit neighborhood. He expressed his amazement at the reactions of those in need as well as the readiness of others to support his cause and provide more money.

Iverson’s shopping friend, a single mother of four, was introduced to him by a neighbor who contacted him on Facebook. The 31-year-old walked to his neighborhood Food Lion and started checking off the items on his mother’s shopping list after exchanging a few texts.

 

Iverson claimed to have turned a $300 gift card he received at workplace trivia into a refrigerator full of food in order to make the payment.Iverson claimed to have been dropping off a trunk load of food to the mother when she got off work later that evening, only hours after he had made his first post. He said that the strangers, who are now friends, “hugged it out” when they first met as his eyes were welling with tears.

Iverson said, “It’s what I would want done for me,” and he and his spouse want to assist the same family as long as their own financial circumstances permit.

“If you can, I urge others to think about this.”

Kristin Schmidt understands what it’s like to be both hungry and eat a healthy lunch. She feels privileged to be the one making the donation now.

The minister of Silver Spring, Maryland’s Unitarian Universalist Church told media that she decided to start a Facebook group for local mothers after being inspired by a friend’s social media post seeking a “grocery buddy.”

She commented, “I can only afford to take on one grocery buddy, but I encourage others to consider this if you can.” She also added, “I would be happy to provide groceries for you and/or your family if SNAP benefits run out in November.”

According to the most recent statistics from the US Department of Agriculture, around one in eight Americans get assistance via SNAP. Schmidt said that if she didn’t take action to assist, she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night because of that figure.

“I want to make sure that the people in my neighborhood have what they need – just as a basic human right,” she said, adding that her drive “comes out of a deep, core belief in the preciousness of every single person.”

The mother of three has been inundated with comments on her first post over the last several days. She said that she received a ton of responses from folks who wanted to assist their neighbors.

Schmidt said that she intends to continue using supermarket gift cards to help her new “grocery buddy,” a handicapped grandmother who depends on SNAP to feed her grandson, once they have met and connected in person.

Schmidt said, “My community would be less if she didn’t get the support that she needs.”To assist with her family’s urgent requirements, Gabrielle hasn’t yet located a “grocery buddy.”

However, she is still optimistic and thankful that she was able to contact with a neighbor who volunteered to pay for her family’s Thanksgiving dinner via another neighborhood Facebook post.