Homeless and Dreaming of FoodWesley Peake Jr., 51, Tucson, Ariz.<\/p>\n
Around noon on Sunday, Wesley Peake Jr. sat on his wheeled walker outside a grocery store. For breakfast, he ate crackers and cheese, and now, with his hunger slowly building, his mind conjured images of his favorite foods. Chicken, yogurt, bananas.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Peake, who is homeless, had no money. And his monthly SNAP benefit, $57, may not come as usual on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
The food that SNAP provides usually lasts him about four days. That is a big help because it means fewer trips to a soup kitchen. His osteoporosis has weakened his bones. \u201cI can\u2019t walk that well,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause my hip sockets are deteriorating.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sits outside the grocery store, hoping that passers-by will drop some change in his hands. These days he is reluctant to ask people outright for help. They, too, may be losing SNAP.<\/p>\n
Food Is Low, and the Car Needs GasDeana Pearson, 61, Chouteau, Okla.<\/p>\n
The grocery store is 12 miles from Deana Pearson\u2019s trailer. The closest food bank is 10 miles away; the closest gas station is nine.<\/p>\n
Which trip is worth the gas money?<\/p>\n
Ms. Pearson, whose jewelry business closed during the coronavirus pandemic, is running low on food. Without her usual SNAP payment, around $287, she must rely on what she has left. On Tuesday, that was $1.18.<\/p>\n
A gallon of gas is $2.50.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m supposed to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that maybe someone will give me a ride to the food bank.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homeless and Dreaming of FoodWesley Peake Jr., 51, Tucson, Ariz. Around noon on Sunday, Wesley Peake Jr. sat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,24136,2183,3,147404,21,19,63852,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-277667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-food-insecurity","tag-food-stamps","tag-news","tag-shutdowns-institutional","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-united-states-politics-and-government","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}