About 40 people sat in rows of chairs in a tightly packed room at Bread and Roses Community Kitchen and Food Pantry in Lawrence on Wednesday, waiting to be called up to get a box of groceries for their families.
Among them was Inocencia Rosa de Jimenez, who was there to get food for herself and her two grandchildren. As she spoke in Spanish about the looming pause in federal SNAP benefits, Helen Gabin of Bread and Roses translated for her.
“She is afraid of, you know, what’s coming up next month,” Gabin said. “She depends on those food stamps. There’s nothing else. There’s no other way for her to support herself. So, she’s always scared about what’s going to happen next month.”
De Jimenez said food pantries would be her only option to get by.
At 41%, the city of Lawrence has the region’s highest percentage of residents getting help from the SNAP program to buy food. Springfield and Holyoke’s rates are even higher, and Brockton, Lynn and Lowell aren’t far behind.
Lawrence residents tell GBH News they don’t know how they’re going to make ends meet, food pantry operators are bracing for a surge in demand and local businesses are expecting to take a hit as customers have less to spend on groceries.
“As you can see, it’s really tight,” said Ashleigh Shaw, who also works at Bread and Roses. “There’s a lot of people waiting. There’s children. There’s lot of families.”
Shaw said with SNAP about to disappear, they’ve seen a 40% increase in people coming in for help.
“A lot of people are very, very afraid right now,” she said. “They’re really afraid that SNAP benefits might not come back on, that they might not be retroactive and prices are really expensive. And so people don’t have a lot.”
Just about a mile away, there was a line outside Lazarus House Ministries, which was also holding its weekly food pantry. There, a young mother circled the room as volunteers dropped cans of corn, boxes of mac and cheese, bread and other food staples in her plastic bag. Everyone got the same number of items, regardless of how big their household is.
“You never know how many more folks are gonna come out,” said Carmen Vega, executive director of Lazarus House. “A few weeks ago, it was 2,146. And we still had the SNAP benefits, right? So, imagine now that we do not have SNAP benefits, we don’t know what those numbers are going to look like.”
Vega said people sometimes mistakenly think those getting food assistance don’t have jobs, but a lot of the people who come to the food pantry are on a quick break from work, she said.
“That’s why we try to move the line very quickly because we know that people are getting out of their jobs, running from their jobs to come over here to get these seven to 10 items,” she said.
The city of Lawrence is collecting food from local markets and launching its own food pantry at donated space at 530 Broadway.
City Councilor Gregory Del Rosario is coordinating the food bank at the mayor’s request.
“I represent District C, which is the poorest district in the city,” Del Rosario said. “I know our people, in my district, will be extremely impacted ... Also the businesses will be impacted, because they’re not going to have as much business if this benefit goes away.”
Among those businesses is Essex Market in
downtown Lawrence. Ellie Santos manages the store, which is owned by her father.
“I would say about 70 to 80% of people that come in here usually use SNAP,” Santos said. “At the time of the month that they obviously receive their benefits, that’s the time that you mostly see them.”
And if those customers don’t have SNAP, that’s going to hit their business. Santos said they’re trying to figure out how to get ready.
“You know, like not try to buy so much merchandise and see how we kind of go on with this new chapter. Because we don’t even know,” Santos said. “This has never happened, so we don’t know what to expect.”
Carmen Vega of Lazarus House said what is clear is that in places like Lawrence, where food insecurity is already high, the loss of SNAP is going to be felt immediately. She said organizations like hers are going to need a lot of help to make sure people are fed in this challenging time.
“When this passes, because this will pass and we look back on it, what did you do?” Vega said. “Like, did you help? Did you collect cans of food? ... Did you help a neighbor? This is a time that we need you to come and to help.”
