SNAP and the Hours That Weren’t There
I’m almost 50 and live alone. Most of my life, I’ve done manual labor – washing dishes in restaurants, mowing lawns in the summer, temporary warehouse work for stores in the winter. None of it was ever steady.
When things got really tight, I applied for SNAP. The money wasn't much, but it at least made sure I had something in the fridge, so I wouldn't go hungry. Then, I got that letter. It said I was an "Able-Bodied Adult" and had to work or be in training at least 80 hours a month. Otherwise, after three months, my SNAP benefits would stop.
80 hours. Doesn't sound like much, right? About 20 hours a week. Maybe in the city, that's no big deal. But in our small town, it's a huge problem.
The biggest factory here closed down years ago. Most of the young people left. The jobs left are either seasonal gigs in the summer, or maybe the small general store needs someone to move boxes once in a while. I'm not lazy. I've looked for every bit of work I could find.
Last month, I got 40 hours with the lawn company and 25 hours at the general store. That's 65 hours total. I ran myself ragged, and that's all I could scrape together. I turned in my timesheet, worried sick.
Sure enough, this month, I got the notice that my benefits were cut off. The letter was cold, just said I "failed to meet work requirements."
I stood in my kitchen, holding that letter, looking at my half-empty fridge. I felt this huge sense of helplessness. This rule, it assumes the jobs are just there, waiting for you, if you just try. But it doesn't see the reality here. There aren't that many jobs. There aren't that many hours.
It's not that I don't want to work. It's that there isn't enough work to do.
This policy, it's not motivating me. It's punishing me for living in the wrong place. It's pushing me even further down, leaving me almost too tired to even look for the next odd job.
#SNAPLife
