Krystal Monroe has cut back to one meal a day, usually a peanut butter sandwich and a can of fruits or vegetables, so her 8-year-old son has enough to eat. <\/p>\n
As a single mom in Gadsden, she lost her job as a paralegal the day before the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, was suspended. <\/p>\n
Monroe said she struggled to work because of a deteriorating medical condition that\u2019s gotten worse as she has less food. And she hasn\u2019t been able to find another job. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t spending the money I do have on food, I\u2019d be able to spend it on gas to get my health back on track,\u201d she told AL.com. \u201cSo this is having a huge impact on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she was making $17.50 an hour as a paralegal, Monroe said, it was enough to afford two meals a day for herself, food for her son on the days she has custody of him, and biweekly trips from Gadsden to Birmingham to see her specialists.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s grateful for the food boxes from her local church, but sometimes it\u2019s hard to make a meal out of what she\u2019s given, mostly beans and fruit snacks. She said it can be hard to please her son who\u2019s a picky eater, so she saves whatever money she has to buy him the food he likes, like sausages. <\/p>\n
In October, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced food stamps would be suspended due to the ongoing shutdown<\/a>, despite having a contingency fund that could at least pay out partial benefits to people enrolled in SNAP. <\/p>\n Since then, the 750,000 Alabamians who rely on SNAP have been inundated with uncertainty about whether they\u2019ll get help buying food this month. Federal courts have ordered the Trump administration to pay out partial benefits<\/a>, then full benefits<\/a>. The administration has responded with appeals<\/a> and has escalated the case to the Supreme Court.<\/a> <\/p>\n The Alabama Department of Human Resources said Monday that partial benefits should be released by the end of the week<\/a>, but added that a straight percentage reduction may not be what\u2019s received. <\/p>\n And politicians on Capitol Hill are moving closer to a deal to end the shutdown, but one that doesn\u2019t include any guarantees on health care subsidies that Democrats held out for for over 40 days<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cJust the uncertainty has been a huge deal. And I just finally said, I\u2019m going to plan as if they\u2019re not doing any benefits and work from there,\u201d Monroe said. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t trust that any party has our best interest at heart. I don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any care for the single mom or dad or families struggling to get by.\u201d <\/p>\n Like Monroe, multiple Alabamians have told AL.com<\/a> that the suspension of SNAP has created significant hardship and uncertainty in their lives, forcing them to sacrifice basic needs.<\/p>\n Falling behind on bills<\/p>\n April works part time delivering groceries through Walmart\u2019s Spark app. <\/p>\n She can\u2019t work full time because she has a child with an intellectual disability and has to be available for doctors and therapy appointments and school IEP meetings. She spoke on the condition that AL.com<\/a> not use her full name to protect her daughter\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n She said the SNAP suspension has hit her family on multiple fronts. <\/p>\n She didn\u2019t get her monthly benefit of about $500, which she typically can stretch pretty far for her family of three. <\/p>\n On top of that, over 17% of residents in rural Calhoun County<\/a> where April lives and works are also on SNAP. She said her take home pay in her job delivering groceries has plunged from about $300 a week to $100 a week since the suspension. <\/p>\n She\u2019s having to sacrifice paying some of her bills to buy groceries. She\u2019s cut out most of the non-essentials like subscriptions for streaming services. <\/p>\n \u201cBut if it continues to go this way, we might have to cut into the essential stuff,\u201d she told AL.com. \u201cI\u2019m already behind on my car payment, so now I\u2019m risking my car being repossessed. And if that happens, then I can\u2019t even do the work I\u2019m supposed to or get my disabled child back and forth to the appointments that she needs.\u201d <\/p>\n The food pantry has helped, though it\u2019s hard to get enough meat there, and meat is the most expensive item at the grocery store. She can stretch each food box about a week. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we knew how much we could expect to get or how much was coming, I could plan ahead and make arrangements with utility companies,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at this point we don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna come at all so what do we do?\u201d <\/p>\n Food bank obstacles<\/p>\n There\u2019s a food pantry not far from Brittany\u2019s home in Huntsville. But she uses a walker, and she doesn\u2019t have a car. <\/p>\n She can take the bus, but with her walker it\u2019s hard to carry food boxes through the narrow aisles, let alone multiple bus routes and transfer stations. <\/p>\n She\u2019s on disability and can\u2019t work. Since her food stamps were suspended, she said she only has $120 to last the month. <\/p>\n Brittany moved to Alabama a few years ago and doesn\u2019t have anyone she can call on for help. She spoke to AL.com<\/a> on the condition that her last name not be used because she said she previously escaped an abusive relationship.<\/p>\n She takes two medications – one that costs $63 and another that costs $54. Now that she can\u2019t afford them, she\u2019s asked her doctor to give her samples instead. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping they\u2019ll last me to the end of the month,\u201d she told AL.com. <\/p>\n Because of the obstacles she faces to get to the food bank, the easiest option is for her to buy the most affordable food she can at the nearby grocery store. This week she\u2019s hoping she budgeted enough to buy a box of spaghetti and pasta sauce to eat for every lunch and dinner. <\/p>\n \u201cIf the price of noodles goes up, that cuts into my budget,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I\u2019m back to not eating breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n The uncertainty of food prices lately has been as frustrating as the uncertainty of not knowing when SNAP benefits will come. <\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s being held over your head, like a pinata, and you don\u2019t have a stick to hit it.\u201d <\/p>\n Food or health care<\/p>\n Melissa Swain used to have a high paying job, she said, making six figures a year as a business owner. <\/p>\n Then on Nov. 11, 2021 she had a seizure at work. She had no family history of epilepsy, no prior illnesses or injuries. <\/p>\n \u201cIt completely flipped my whole life upside down,\u201d Swain told AL.com. <\/p>\n She said the seizures made it almost impossible for her to work. She had to sell her company, a house, her cars. <\/p>\n After long approval and appeals processes, she said, she was just recently approved for disability, though she hasn\u2019t gotten a check yet. She just got onto SNAP in June.<\/p>\n Without any money coming in, Swain said, she\u2019s had to cancel doctor appointments because she can no longer afford copays. <\/p>\n She can\u2019t drive because of her epilepsy, so she struggles to get to the food bank. It\u2019s only open on weekdays during work hours, making it difficult to find someone who can give her a ride. <\/p>\n She also needs to make it to the pet pantry to feed her six cats and one dog. <\/p>\n She\u2019s angry at the government for making \u201cpower plays\u2026at the expense of people.” <\/p>\n \u201cWe are the richest country in the world, and we have people starving for health care<\/a>,\u201d she said, adding that President Trump is \u201ctrying to leverage starvation as a tool to get the Democrats to capitulate.\u201d <\/p>\n But she is willing to starve, she said. As someone who knows firsthand the importance of having health insurance, she knows what\u2019s at stake. <\/p>\n \u201cI know what not having health care does to somebody with a major illness. That illness gets worse,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d rather starve than have Democrats give in to this.\u201d <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Krystal Monroe has cut back to one meal a day, usually a peanut butter sandwich and a can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-285433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285433","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=285433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}