By Carla Ventura
I run a food pantry. I’m proud of the work we do. But if lawmakers passed a liveable minimum wage or invested more in programs like SNAP, people wouldn’t need to rely on pantries like mine.
Pantries are a critical piece of the anti-hunger puzzle, but they’re filler pieces. Government nutrition programs — with the infrastructure and funding to get the job done — should be the centerpiece.
I grew up on food stamps, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. My mother worked hard, but her wages were too low to meet our basic needs. Sometimes we felt embarrassed pulling out the stamps at the register — I worried kids would talk about me at school.
But the aid was a blessing. It helped keep us from hunger. Even still, food stamps weren’t designed to last the whole month. Most months, we had to travel long distances — often outside our county — to find food pantries so we could get by.
SNAP is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, feeding nearly a quarter of all U.S. children. The program reduces hunger by about 30 percent, improves long-term educational, health, and economic outcomes for children, and helps address systemic racial disparities in poverty.
SNAP is the first line of defense in a down economy. In fact, food insecurity fell to a record low of 10.2 percent in 2021 — in the middle of the pandemic — due to the pandemic-era boost in SNAP benefits. But now that those benefits have expired, nearly 13 percent of us experience food insecurity.
For many Americans, wages are simply too low. To meet basic needs in South Carolina, where I live, two adults with two children must earn over $21 per hour. But our state minimum wage is just $7.25.
A person would have to work 106 hours a week at that wage to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment here. Actually, the minimum wage isn’t enough to cover the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country.
Over 44 million Americans rely on SNAP to combat hunger. Yet some members of Congress are proposing cutting the program by a whopping $30 billion over the coming decade. South Carolina alone, which is among the top 10 states with the greatest food insecurity, would suffer $400 million in cuts.
That would be devastating for families like mine.
I’m a single mother with three kids. At age three, one of my sons was diagnosed with autism, and I couldn’t find affordable daycare that could accommodate his needs. Every week, I had to leave work at a moment’s notice to help him or rush him home. I couldn’t sustain employment. I needed help during that challenging time, and SNAP provided it.
I now run a food pantry, Food for All, where I’ve seen that I’m far from alone.
I listen to the stories of people who come here and share my own to ease their feelings of embarrassment. I breathe a sigh of relief with them when they tell me, “Now I can afford my medication,” “Now I can make rent,” or “Now I don’t have to choose between feeding my child and getting her new shoes.”
But other times, I have to watch those who’ve waited in long lines for an hour be turned away because the food has run out. I can’t possibly get enough food donations to meet the enormous need.
But I won’t give up. None of us can.
That’s why I continue to fight for robust funding — and against the proposed slashing — of SNAP. People shouldn’t have to rely on food pantries to feed themselves or their families.
We know what works. We saw how hunger decreased during the pandemic when it had been forecast to skyrocket because we invested in the well-being of families. We must do that again.
Carla Ventura is a mother, founder of the nonprofit Food for All, and an Expert on Poverty with RESULTS from Columbia, South Carolina.
Al says
Let’s see, food stamps, free food, free lunches for your kids and possibly section 8 housing and you can’t make it. Do you need me too do your dishes also as my tax money goes to support you and 3 kids. I only chose to have 2 , I’ve never slept with you, why should I support your children?
Second the minimum wage will never be enough, but your stupidity shows that only your wages will go up and all else will stay the same. If minimum wage was 21 per hour it would cost 30 to just get by. You should have learned economics before you started popping out rug rats.
Pierre Tristam says
I’m hoping some poorly designed AI bot from the basement of a frothing reactionary with wanting programming skills wrote the above. That would explain its heartless bigotry and poor intelligence.
Bill Boots says
Simple questions,
Why would anyone birth children they can’t afford?
Presently it seems they birth for monies/subsidies!
Double the minimum wage, cost of everything will increase for everyone, the gain?
Live within your means seems a simple answer!
Tired of it says
Really? Do you actually know what “subsidies” are available in this counbtry for poor children? I bet you have no clue. Perhaps if we stopped paying CEOs the obscene amount of money they currently get, we could increase the minum wage and not prices. You think people are giving birth to children they can’t afford now. Wait until all the red state start to really enforce all their restrictive, anti abortion laws. Wait until Clarence Thomas gets his way and the corrupt Supremen Court revisits the issue of birth control, as he has said he wants to do. Why aren’t you asking why are the men not supporting the children they father.
JimboXYZ says
That’s pretty much how it works, announce more money for subsidized housing, food, wages, etc., the wolves see that as an opportunity for short term inflation at the very least. Forgive student loans, some folks will create new ways to go deeper into debt for anything else. That’s probably why Biden was doing that, default on a student loan is a credit score hit. Get those credit scores back to qualify for more debt at higher interest rates.
Too funny, I ended up needing a roof. Paid for it in full. Watched my credit score drop 100 points. Temporary thing that it was when the activity went back to normal a month later the 100 points that evaporated was back to what it was prior to the roof payoff. Apparently they didn’t like that I paid off the roof for the higher Biden interest rates. They’d have rather I carried that debt indefinitely for no value added to anything interest revenue for the bank. That’s how Bidenomics works. anyone that saves money is penalized for it. Amazing forgiven as defaulted student loans restores credit score, actually paying off debts is a penalty for a credit score. But I get it, if I was in the business of loaning money, I’d want to collect as much interest as possible too. It’s free money to the bank, another month passed, getting paid for the hands on the clock marching forward. And that revenue, nothing really produced to make anything more valuable, the asset just got a month older as depreciable. The world is all about the recurring monthly payments. Prices at unaffordable, finance it & never get that burden resolved.
Bill Boots says
I hear ya, i paid my mortgage off 7 years early, FICO score of 800 went down to 690, took a year of using credit cards to buy everything and paying them off monthly to get score back to 800!
The Deep State wants subjects in debt from birth to death!
Our government finances multi family housing at outrageous costs to deep pocketed developers who are guaranteed rent payments, renters never build equity but the developers do!
JimboXYZ says
When I saw my credit score had dropped for paying it off in full, the explanation was that my credit limit was set too high, or that I couldn’t manage credit card payments even though the card I put it on I’ve had since 1989, never missing a payment in full. But yet the limit didn’t allow me to pay for the roof in a single charge, I had to charge for 1/2, pay that off immediately, then charge for the other half the same billing cycle and pay that off as well. It just reminded me so much of the Trump vs NY thing where they called Trump a fraud for paying the loan(s) he received, on schedule & with interest. State of NY fined Trump $ 454 million, he’s appealing that. I find it incredible that someone can actually pay for something to remain debt free & the accusations that somehow there is a fraud for that or in our specific examples a penalty for avoiding unnecessary interest. I take it that you paid your’s off early to avoid the hit for the interest rate hikes of the Biden Administration. 7 years of interest payments that you avoided for paying your mortgage off early. Should you sell the house there will be no HUD sheet settlement for any outstanding mortgage to the bank. Good move, we beat the Biden-Harris fraud of the last 4 years of moving goal posts to change the rules of how much anything is worth. The interest rate had to go up closer to what Biden would forgive for student loan defaults. Making homeowners pay for the interest differential.
Nancy N. says
With compassion and empathy gushing out of you like that, you must be a pro-life conservative Christian.
Also, I suggest you should take some grammar lessons if you don’t want to look like a hypocrite calling other people stupid.
Pat Stote says
Thank you, Nancy. You are 100%. Totally uncaring person antique not alone
Vegeta says
Please don’t assume the religious beliefs people have or their values, ask them first, then make informed decisions.
Jim says
I wonder how cold a person has to be to spout these comments. We don’t all have the same opportunities in life to excel and many have bad luck that places them in circumstances where they just can not afford the basics of life. True, there are some that “game” the system but to paint everyone who is in such circumstances reaches a level of callousness that is hard to fathom.
I don’t see how you can be so negative about a government program meant to provide food aid for those people in our society that need it to survive. Yes, it comes from our tax dollars but we spend a whole lot of tax dollars on dubious pet projects of congressmen(women) and senators every year. For me, I can live with spending tax dollars to help those that need it. And I can live with knowing some of those tax dollars may go to those who don’t or who won’t put forth the effort. Overall, the net benefit far outweighs the cost.
So be thankful that you personally have not had something happen in your life that put you in a position that you could not afford to feed your family. That doesn’t make you better than those who find themselves in such a situation, just more fortunate. What this does show is you have no awareness that “there by the grace of God go I”. If you are a church-going person, please tell your preacher and congregation how you feel about this. Maybe you’ll find out you’re not the good Christian you probably think you are.
And Happy Mother’s Day – if you have one……
Pat Stote says
Perfect
Ray W. says
Thank you, Jim.
In reading a letters-based biography of John Adams, our second president, he wrote that he was elected to his home township’s commission almost immediately after his graduation from university. He wrote of one of the first votes he cast. Every year, the commission voted on a poor tax. Adams characterized his yes vote as a duty to his community.
David Hackett Fischer, the author of Albion’s Seed, characterized the poor tax as being almost universal in Puritan New England. From his research, the idea of a village poor tax lasted well into the 19th century. He also compared the New England tax rates, including poor taxes, with other regional colonial era tax rates. Fischer concluded that New Englanders taxed themselves on average at a rate three or four times the rates of the other colonies.
Somehow, despite a relative lack of natural mining, mineral and energy resources, New England became one of the wealthiest regions in the country, a status it maintains to this day. Over the past three hundred years, New Englanders as a whole have thrived without abundant natural gifts. Yes, timber is abundant, and fish have long been a signature export. “Taxachusetts” has been a popular mantra for most of my lifetime. But even Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts chose to help the poor. His Romneycare initiative passed into law just as our nation was heading into the Great Recession. Within a few years, the rate of the state’s uninsured dropped by more than 50%. Massachusetts achieved the lowest uninsured rate in the nation.
Just how can a resource poor region that has large segments of its soil poorly suited to growing crops in a weather zone that limits economic activity six months of the year thrive when they so heavily tax themselves in order to help the poorest among them? What fools they must have been all these centuries! Just think of all the wealth they wasted helping their neighbors! They wasted even more money in building and supporting a liberal elite center of university life in and around Boston. Just how can teaching a liberal arts education to the best minds our nation produces help their regional economy?
Pogo says
@Ray W.
Thank you.
I would, if I may, add this:
https://www.google.com/search?q=romney+care+swiss+healthcare+system
Laurel says
Ray W.: My Republican husband always states that we should want people to be healthy and educated as they would be able to work and pay taxes. Keeping people poor and uneducated does nothing to promote a healthy economy.
Take a good look says
You might not have slept with this woman but you so ignorantly know all this other information pertaining to her circumstances that led her to be in a position to rely on a food bank???? How dare you!!! Perhaps like myself, she may have been divorced as a result of enduring years of domestic violence? Just maybe….she struggled for years, often working two jobs while putting herself through college to earn a Masters degree as a single parent…. like I did? Maybe like myself, she had no family and still needed help to make ends meet? I’m certain that most people don’t willingly choose to put themselves and their children in these situations, but sometimes things do happen and we do what we have to do to take care of our families! Maybe in recent years she is now better off and is now helping others who might be going through similar hardships???? Did you ever THINK of these things? If you only had one iota of compassion and empathy that this woman has!!! Just WOW!
Sherry says
@al. . . some serious work with a really good anger management/psychological counselor would benefit you greatly. Unless and until that happens, we would all appreciate your restraint by not spreading your foul hatred of the human race here. Thank You!
Tired of it says
What a despicable, heartless person you must be. I am going to guess that you are an older, white male, who feels that some minorities got the job opprtunities you “should” have had. I am further going to guess that you are a trump supporter and call yourself a christian.. I would rather the woman on food stamps , as a friend, than you any day.
Toto says
Hey AI, why don’t you go buy yourself a happy meal. You need one.
Barry McDonald says
There are a lot of people in Flagler county that rely heavily upon the food pantry. If you are in need please seek out the help. I’m not sure of the contact information, but I ‘m pretty sure someone reading this may know.
Billy says
With all the apartments and overcrowded overbuilding going on we are going to need about 25 of theses food pantries! We are now Orlando! The crime is going to explode!
Pat Stote says
I bet a dollar you were not born in Palm Coast that you came from somewhere else
Hookah Smoking Caterpillar says
I’ll bet $10 you don’t currently live in PC.
atwp says
The first commentor has a right to express his feelings. The fact remains that people need help and hunger is real. Glad to see my tax dollars helping to feed people. Am not glad my tax dollars are are funding killer bombs for the war.
Greg says
How much is the daddy paying to support his kids? Do you even know who daddy is? Looks like you should had got an education, rather than pregnant. Food Pantries do help, but I see some pretty nice, newer vehicles lined up Rt1 on food hand out days. I know of one person who goes there all the time, and he and his wife make 6 figures a year. Free is free to some!
Mark says
The people you should be worried about are those “6 figure a year” people you know taking advantage of the system. Your opening lines are just ignorant when you have no clue on her situation, maybe you’re the “daddy” and don’t want to fess up.
Jim says
Greg,
Bold words from a man(?) who clearly lacks education as well…. “Looks like you should had got an education, rather than pregnant” is not the writing of someone with even a high school education. So stop running your mouth about the life choices of others and spend a little time working on your own deficiencies. When you are as perfect as you think you are, try again…
And Mark is correct, the fact that some people who can afford their own food take advantage of food pantries is not a reason to condemn either the food pantry nor those using it that have a need.
Maybe you should look for reasons to help your fellow man rather than dwell on reasons not too. Might make your life a little better and it sure would help our society regain some of the compassion it sorely needs.
Sherry says
Thank you Jim! It appears this story has parked the interest of several angry and uneducated people who are rushing to “hate filled” judgement of others.
Unfortunately, they. . . in their ignorance. . . will likely vote “against” our democracy.
Greg says
I have a bachelors degree!
Mark says
That’s nice, I know people with 3rd Grade educations that have more brains than some that hold Masters degrees.
Johnny says
Tax the rich then maybe poor families will be able to feed their families. Don’t vote for Trump because he wants to give more breaks to the rich and oil companies so they give him money to pay his legal bills. Trump never mentions helping the poor, he doesn’t care about them at all. And those Maga voters are fooled to think otherwise.
Kennan says
You will have to excuse AL VON DOUCHEBERG. He has a problem walking in another man or womens shoes. He can’t believe the nerve of some people!! NO JOB!! POOR!!! HOW DARE THEY!!! If it isn’t you. It isn’t real.
Sherry says
Consider the possibility that some “extreme right winged” bots have managed to get through the Flaglerlive software screening. . . all in an effort to sow division. I’m certainly hoping that is the case here.
FlaglerLive says
Sherry, there is no screening software. It is all done manually, individually.
Sherry says
OOPS! Sorry Flaglerlive. . . Wow, that is a lot of work!
@greg. . . Guessing the English language was not your major. Some remedial classes would serve you well in creating any kind of credibility. Less judgement and some compassion for others wouldn’t hurt either.
FlaglerLive says
Has caused two cancers so far, too.
In the Field says
Most people seem to greatly misunderstand the availability of assistance, and that becomes apparent when they experience a stroke or a medical issue, or their job tanks and they struggle to get re-employed on time. So many people will reluctantly seek assistance assuming all these other folks “know the system” and that people are living on low rents, free food, free medical, and receiving checks, only to find that when they seek housing, they’re met with:
“There’s a two to four year wait list for housing, and the waitlist hasn’t opened up in four years.”
And when they apply for assistance, they’re met with,
“We need your last three months bank staments, paystubs, etc. etc.”
Then they’re upset and angry, understandably, but they’re holding onto this idea that they are somehow an “outlier.” They’re someone whose actually worked, so why do we need all this information, and why isn’t assistance available?
It’s not. There’s minimal, reasonable assistance available, and most people are in those same boats: spouse died. Family car accident. Long term medical diagnosis. Divorce. Domestic Violence.
This illusion that the majority of folks using foodstamps or going to food banks are living off the system is just an illusion. Working-age people get back to work, and only the elderly and people with disabilities seem to take advantage of those things for longer periods of time, and even then…they have to wait through waitlists as well.
Pogo says
@Comment of the day — %100
From today’s FlaglerLive Cartoon/Briefing — well worth the time:
How the US Is Destroying Young People’s Future | Scott Galloway | TED