For some Southeast Texas families, $130 in SNAP benefits can mean weeks of groceries. But two women in Port Arthur said their benefits vanished within hours of being deposited, and they\u2019ve been told the money will not be replaced.<\/p>\n
Jacqueline McGee said her $130 in SNAP benefits was deposited Sept. 5. By 2:18 that morning, she said transactions at businesses in New York drained the account.<\/p>\n
McGee showed what she said was all she had left in her freezer at her Port Arthur apartment.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo packs \u2014 only have two packs of meat left,\u201d McGee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the Meals on Wheels for my mother… and like some fish that I got yesterday from the pantry. But other than that… I really needed my food stamps,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McGee said the loss has taken a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy anxiety has been at an all-time high these past couple of days because I’m just stressing trying to figure out what I’m going to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her neighbor, Juanita Mendoza, said the same thing happened to her. Mendoza said she gets $130 on the ninth of each month and stretches it for weeks. She said she learned Thursday about an unauthorized transaction that left her account with only 42 cents to spend at a local grocery store.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s where I go, and I fill up, and it lasts me three weeks. Canned goods, meats, fruits, butter, vegetables, bread, tortillas… stuff that I know that I can stretch. And now I can’t. Because it’s gone,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n
Both women said their cards never left their possession.<\/p>\n
Texas Health and Human Services said it takes benefit security seriously and acknowledged the broader issue of SNAP fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cHHSC takes the security of our client\u2019s benefits very seriously. SNAP card skimming has been a persistent problem across the country, including Texas,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The agency also said stolen benefits are no longer eligible for replacement under federal law.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease note, SNAP benefits that were stolen on or after Dec. 21, 2024, are not eligible for replacement. The Federal law that allowed replacement was not extended beyond Dec. 20, 2024,\u201d HHSC said.<\/p>\n
McGee said she has had to rely on pantry items to get by.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no milk. I got these eggs yesterday from the pantry… I have nothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
HHSC said people who discover fraud should immediately cancel their card, change their PIN and report the fraud. But McGee and Mendoza said those steps don\u2019t restore the food they expected to have for the month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For some Southeast Texas families, $130 in SNAP benefits can mean weeks of groceries. But two women in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-432467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}