Live Or Die, Eat Or Go Hungry
Everyone loves Halloween. You go out and you dress up. You interact with friends and dance the night away.
The next morning, you'll wanna wake up and get some food and refreshments. Get your head right and feel human again. But what happens if you're strapped for cash? No problem, you can grab something with your food stamps card (EBT), right? With the government shutdown, that's not even an option.
This year, Halloween was on a Friday, and the 1st fell on a Saturday. Most places where you can grab free food to hold you over until the new week are closed, with most pantries and food assistance places operating on a Monday-Friday schedule.
With millions of families set to experience food instability, the lines are going to be long as hell, and the resources are going to be limited. EVERYONE who is low income during this time will be dealing with food deprivation.
The next dilemma you deal with is, who deserves help if there is not enough food to go around? Maybe you think women and children should of course be 1st in the line, but you're still hungry. Your morals shouldn't have to be applied to you feeding yourself, which is a LITERAL HUMAN NECESSITY.
Hello everyone. My name is Warren Clark, just a regular human who has experience with food instability. I've dealt with housing instability for 4.5 years, from the time I was 17 up until the day before my 22nd birthday. During that time frame, I often didn’t know whether or not I would eat.
There would be cold winter nights when I just wanted to get something to heat up, but no one would let you heat up your food anywhere. Having to walk past hot food in supermarkets that would nourish my soul simply because the type of currency I use doesn't fit that status quo for said object. I wanted the same range of food options, healthy food, that everyone has. But everything that you can't cook on your own, because you don’t have a kitchen, costs a substantial amount more than stuff that you can cook. Now, you're looking at whatever can fill your stomach, regardless of what it is.
We live in what is considered the greatest country on earth, and I CAN'T EVEN EAT HOW I’D LIKE TO.
Now millions of Americans will face the same shit I had to deal with. They will negotiate with themselves if it's better to eat right when they wake up to give themselves energy or push their meal back until nighttime so they can go to sleep not starving.
Being poor is being criminalized in this country. Having no food stamps for low income people is going to force a lot of families to make choices between if they are going to eat or if their kid will. Imagine having to explain to your child that we have to skip meals because our BILLIONARE leader decided that a White House ballroom was more important than them eating. Food should not be taken out of the mouths of poor people and shoveled onto the Rich's plate.
1 million plus Massachusetts residents are set to not receive SNAP for the month of November.
42 million US citizens are CURRENTLY dealing with food instability during this month, more than the entire population of Canada. Our citizens deserve more than potentially having to resort to food theft and incarceration to put food on their plates for their families. Having to resort to standing in lines for hours at pantries with an increased need, all to make sure they and their families have a piece of the sustenance that should be their right.
When are we gonna step up and do something? We're all already hungry, so hopefully if the food stamps don't turn back on we can at least get our shared servings of justice and morality. Everyone should be able to eat, but the impoverished American population should not be forced to eat the bullshit our "Leaders" feed us. That's why I'm so proud to play a part in the design and implementation of BAY-CASH.
Our cash plus model for young adults provides them with $600 twice a month for whatever life throws their way. Now, because of that, our participants will have options for food while our government figures shit out. Direct cash payments for young adults are the future. If we can keep putting money into the pockets of young people, they can lift themselves and others up, and give this generation a chance to move forward without having to live or die, eat or go hungry, based on the nonsense of the federal government.
Here are a few links to help you learn more about the current SNAP cut off and future cuts coming down the line:
Mass.gov | What is the SNAP Program
WBUR | By the numbers: Who will be affected in Mass. if food aid program SNAP goes unfunded
USA Today |SNAP benefits end Saturday, Nov. 1 amid government shutdown. Who's affected?
Teachers College | Closer Look: How SNAP Cuts Will Impact Critical Food Access
HKS | Explainer: Understanding the SNAP program—and what cuts to these benefits may mean
UPenn | Even When SNAP Payments Resume, More Food Cuts Will Affect Millions of Americans
Thank you for listening.
Unapologetically myself,
Warren
