A recent cut in federal food stamp benefits is deepening the financial squeeze felt by area residents already struggling to feed their families, pay their rents, and heat their homes.
Food pantry operators and others who serve low-income families said a rise in the number of people seeking help and the stories they are telling point to the impact of the reductions.
“We are certainly seeing the effects,” said Michael Molyneux, executive director of the Charity Guild food pantry, in Brockton, which provides free food each week to about 100 families, many of whom also rely on food stamps. “This past month, we’ve heard our clients as they referred to these cuts and how much they are hurting.”
Molyneux said that the pantry in recent months had already been seeing an uptick in its numbers, a trend he believes may now be worsening.
“It’s been a difficult year for clients of the Charity Guild, and the food stamp cuts last month made it go from bad to worse,” he said.
The Braintree Community Food Pantry, which normally serves 80 Braintree households a month, is seeing an increase in both its overall number of clients and the frequency of their visits, according to Agnes Lynch, the group’s director.
“They say we were barely making ends meets before the cuts, and now they’ve cut our food stamps, how are we going to make it,” Lynch said of the families. Responding to the increased need, the pantry has expanded from once to twice a month the number of visits each household can make to the pantry.
The food stamp program, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), serves about 887,000 people in Massachusetts, a sharp rise from the 200,000 served in 2001. According to a recent state report, 36 percent of SNAP recipients are children and 15 percent are elderly.
The cut in food stamp benefits occurred because an expansion of benefits included in the 2009 federal stimulus bill expired. The size of the cuts varies, but a four-person family earning no income saw their benefits drop by $36, to $632.
Congress is now debating a farm bill that could bring more cuts to SNAP. In the next decade, the program would be cut $39 billion under the version passed by the Republican-controlled House, and $4 billion under the version passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Lisa, a disabled single mother of three from Quincy who did not want her last name used because she believes there’s a stigma for people who get food assistance, is trying to figure how to absorb a $36 cut in her SNAP allotment, which reduced it to $405 a month.
“It’s going to affect me a lot,” she said, noting that even the benefits she had been receiving were not enough to cover her food needs. “It brings you to about two and a half weeks into the month – and I’m a very smart shopper, too. I look for special values and use store brands, but all that doesn’t get me to where I need to be. The last week is very tough.”
Lisa, who receives federal disability benefits, said she will probably have to rely more on food pantries now. “A lot of them you can only go to once a month,” she said. “I’ll just have to sign up for more of them, and go further to get to them.”
Jacqueline, a disabled single mother of three from Randolph, saw her SNAP benefits cut by about $19, to $141. She said she had withdrawn from the program in February, but reenrolled in October when it was clear she could not do without it.
“I’m definitely disappointed,” said Jacqueline, noting that the disability benefits and child support she receives do not cover her household costs. “I have to feed my children. . . . More than half my income goes to my mortgage.”
She said that with the cut in food stamp benefits, “All I can do is ask my friends and family and go to food pantries.”
The state Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers the SNAP program in Massachusetts, is doing what it can to help people affected by the cuts, Matt Kitsos, an agency spokesman, said by e-mail.
“The Department serves one in seven people across the Commonwealth, providing vital assistance that serves as a bridge to stability during difficult times,” Kitsos said “Any reduction in benefits can have a significant impact on a family. The Department has taken steps to ensure clients are aware of the reduction, including a notification to all 480,000 SNAP households making them aware of the change and their new calculated benefit.”
He said the agency has also created a web page, www.mass.gov/dta/arra, with information for recipients, and has an informational hot line, 800-445-6604.
Lisa Spencer, energy director for the South Shore Community Action Council, a Plymouth-based anti-poverty agency that runs a regional warehouse for food pantries, said that the SNAP cuts affect more than a family’s ability to put food on the table.
When they have to spend more on food, households have less disposable income for other needs, notably heating, Spencer said, adding that federal fuel assistance has been cut significantly this year.
Captain Rebecca Kirk, of the Salvation Army Brockton, said that she has noticed people making more frequent visits to the organization’s food pantry. Even more telling is “the way they are communicating anxiety about the situation,” Kirk said, noting that many people are worried, for instance, about how they will pay their heating bills.
The Sanger Center for Compassion in Quincy, which runs a pantry that delivers food to homebound people, has seen about 40 new clients in the past month, 20 percent of whom were prompted to call by the cut in food stamps, said the Rev. David Wooster, the center’s executive director.
Interfaith Social Services saw the number of visits to its regional pantry in Quincy soar from fewer than 10,000 to 18,000 a year during the recession. The agency had hoped to see that number fall next year, “but with this cut in food stamps, I think that hope might be thrown out the window,” said Rick Doane, the group’s director.
While he will know better in January, Doane said, he suspects the cut in food stamps is already having an impact. Typically, many families visit pantries in the middle or at the end of the month when their food stamp benefits are running out. He said now it is likely “people will be coming earlier and earlier in the month for that help.”
Doane said the fact that SNAP benefits are being cut so soon after recession shows “how out of touch Washington really is with what is going on at the food pantry level. . . . People are really struggling to get back on their feet. Instead of continuing to support them, they are getting the rug pulled out from under them.”
John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.