“The crisis is not over yet.”
By JOHN HOWELL Warwick Beacon Editor
This story was originally published in the Warwick Beacon, a publication partner of Ocean State Stories.
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WARWICK — With SNAP food assistance funding having been restored now that the government has reopened, the issue of food insecurity in Rhode Island is not over, Melissa Cherney, president of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, said Thursday.
Speaking to the Warwick Rotary Club, Cherney said prior to the threat that SNAP benefits would end on Nov. 1, (there was a one-week lapse) the Food Bank’s affiliated agencies were providing food to 89,000 Rhode Islanders. When it looked like 142,000 Rhode Islanders receiving benefits might lose them, the demand spiked and 100,000 people were being served by the 137 member agencies statewide. Contributions to the Food Bank also soared. The bank distributed an additional 1 million pounds of food.
But as Cherney pointed out, since the government funded SNAP benefits for Rhode Islanders total $29 million monthly, even if the Food Bank received an additional $1 million a month, it wouldn’t have the capacity to assist the state’s needy.
“We are supplemental,” she said.
“The crisis is not over yet,” she said, explaining that the Food Bank is now catching up on bills it incurred to ensure there was adequate food during the government shutdown.
Changes in SNAP?
And uncertainly clouds the future.
“Changes in [SNAP] eligibility are very confusing,” Kate MacDonald, Food Bank spokeswoman said on Monday. As an example, an adjustment in the factor that takes into consideration the utility bills of low-income residents could dramatically reduce benefits and boost food demand.
Cherney, who comes to Rhode Island from Fargo, North Dakota, succeeds Andrew Schiff. She was one of the candidates identified for the job but never imagined she would end up in the Ocean State. Nonetheless, the recruiting firm urged her to visit the state, and she figured she had nothing to lose.
She told the Rotary Club she fell in love with Rhode Island when she stepped off her flight at midnight and was welcomed by live piano music.
“What is this place? I haven’t seen anything like it,” she said
Cherney grew up on a farm where the weather can make the difference between good and bad years. There were times when food was scarce at home, but she never knew it because she would be sent to her grandmother’s for dinner, which she didn’t mind since grandma was a good cook.
Faced with food insecurity
Later, as a college student, she came face to face with food insecurity. She hid the condition – not knowing where the next meal will come from – leaving empty cereal boxes on her cupboard shelves so her visiting mother wouldn’t know.
Cherney figured it was just a college thing, but then realized she’d need better nutrition to do her studies. She applied for and received SNAP benefits for three months, a situation she kept secret until much later when a critic of the program derided beneficiaries.
“It was a hand up when I needed it most … Hunger is real; it hides in plain sight,” she said.
Now she tells the story to illustrate the pervasiveness of food insecurity. She said a survey conducted by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island found that 38% of families responding did not know where their next meal would come from. Of those, 40% were elderly, she said.
Cherney urged that donations from local food drives go directly to local food pantries. The Food Bank looks to provide fresh produce and nutritionally healthy foods through purchases and large-scale donations it receives. A total of 41% of the food it acquires is Federal USDA commodities, 33% purchased and 26% donated.
The Food Bank operated on an $18 million budget last year, which it cut to $16 million this year to account for the expiration of federal funds it received during the pandemic. MacDonald believes, however, that the budget will be nearly $18 million this year because of the interruption in SNAP benefits.
