Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
Erika Cruz, 31, of Pennsauken, stands to lose her $390 SNAP allotment by Saturday if SNAP benefits lapse, a cause for deep worry. But it’s not just her and her 5-year-old son that’s concerning her. “It’s a very scary situation for the rest of my family,” said Cruz, who works for a telecommunication company. “My grandfather is 90, my grandmother is 70. We’re worried losing SNAP will stress them to death. “Meanwhile, my aunt works a minimum wage job and cares for two teenagers, and gets just $200 a month. We all work, debunking the myth that people on SNAP are abusing the system. “What happens to my family if that all goes?” The extended family has learned to live communally, Cruz said, pooling their SNAP money to make meals they all share. “But this is the first time we’re looking at the chance we’ll have nothing to share,” she said. If SNAP lapses Saturday, many other people accustomed to receiving food assistance in South Jersey could end up blindsided. “Not everyone follows the news,” said Fred Wasiak, president and CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey (FBSJ). “When it’s time for people to pay at the grocery, their EBT [electronic benefit transfer] cards won’t work because they won’t be loaded. “Imagine the humiliation. They’ll be desperate and angry when they’re turned away from the store. It will be a devastating moment.” Statewide, around 800,000 SNAP recipients may be without the benefit, with funding for the program, formerly known as food stamps, set to run out with the government shut down. In South Jersey, 130,000 could cease getting SNAP benefits in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem Counties, Wasiak said. Throughout the United States, about 42 million people are facing life without food assistance for the first time in the history of SNAP. Around two dozen states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, are suing to allow that money to flow. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwania in Boston was considering their request. The day before, she told government attorneys: “You are not going to make everyone drop dead because it’s a political game someplace.” Nearly half New Jersey’s SNAP recipients — around 360,000 of them —are children, according to Advocates for Children of New Jersey, which produces the New Jersey Kids Count Data Book, an annual report that provides a comprehensive statewide and county-level profile of child well-being in the Garden State. New figures from the Advocates for Children group show that in Camden County, nearly 33,000 children 18 and under get SNAP benefits — 13,000 in the city of Camden alone, with tens of thousands more across the region. Need has grown in South Jersey over the last year, with inflation being one of the drivers. In each of the last 10 months, 200,000 people have been served by the FBSJ’s network of 300 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters, Wasiak said. That’s more than double the 95,000 a month during the last big crisis: the pandemic. “And these are numbers that have been growing before any lapse in SNAP has occurred,” he said. “This is an unprecedented time.” What will happen next could be a run on food pantries that could simply overwhelm the system, said Nicole Davis, executive director of the Center for Food Action, a New Jersey food pantry system. “We are bracing for a surge,” she said. “Our goal is to not panic.” Cruz said she may avoid pantries because she expects them to be overrun. Anger about the possible SNAP lapse has been bubbling up throughout the state. On Tuesday, the Camden County Board of Commissioners issued a statement saying President Donald Trump is “giving to the rich and robbing the poor of the little benefits they get from SNAP and Medicaid.” The commissioners added that Trump has the ability to preclude calamity by simply allowing use of the SNAP contingency fund. “But,” the commissioners said, “the chances are slim that will happen, leaving the most vulnerable members in our community out in the cold.” In Burlington County, the Institute of Technology and Burlington County Special Services School District will continue to offer eligible students free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches for the duration of the federal government shutdown. “Thousands of Burlington County families will soon be without SNAP benefits, and there are concerns that many of those same families could be impacted by an interruption in free school meals,” said State Rep. Andrea Katz (D., Burlington, Atlantic). Meanwhile, Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement last week that Republicans are using their control in Washington to “gut the social safety net, rip food away from hungry families, and kick people off their healthcare.” The White House did not respond to requests for comment. If Saturday dawns and the EBT cards won’t be loaded up, Cruz asked, “What will we do? “We’ll be forced to choose: buy food or pay the rent. Because by Nov. 1, we may not be able to do both.”
