From Saranac Lake, Emily Russell of North Country Public Radio reports on how families are scrambling to get by as vital aid programs remain frozen.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Millions of Americans who rely on food benefits known as SNAP are still in limbo. That’s after a Supreme Court ruling late last night allowed the Trump administration to keep withholding federal funding for the antihunger program. The ongoing government shutdown is also continuing to affect child care centers and heating assistance, and there have been broader budget cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid. North Country Public Radio’s Emily Russell has been reporting on all of this from northern New York, and she’s with us now. Hi, Emily.
EMILY RUSSELL, BYLINE: Hi, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as we mentioned, has been one of the hardest hit during the shutdown. Where you are, how are people dealing with cuts to food stamps?
RUSSELL: Well, this part of northern New York is really rural. Good-paying jobs are hard to come by. About 30% of people are on Medicaid here. Food prices have been rising in recent years, so many folks are really hurting, especially without SNAP benefits.
I stopped by a food pantry in Saranac Lake. It’s a small town in the Adirondack Mountains. I spoke with Avana Forsyth. She’s been running the pantry for more than a decade. She told me she’s seen a 10% increase in the number of people who come to the pantry hungry.
AVANA FORSYTH: It makes me sick to my stomach to think that people are going without food. There’s no reason for it.
PFEIFFER: Emily, how has New York state government responded to the SNAP cuts?
RUSSELL: Well, just yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul ordered state agencies to fully fund SNAP benefits this month. In a statement, she said the Trump administration was being, quote, “senseless and un-American” by withholding money for food stamps. Hochul said the benefits for the 3 million New Yorkers enrolled in SNAP should be available by tomorrow.
PFEIFFER: Another program hit during the shutdown is the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. It goes by the acronym LIHEAP or sometimes HEAP for short. It helps people pay their home heating and cooling costs. And with winter coming, I imagine that’s a big deal, especially in your part of the country.
RUSSELL: Yeah, it really is starting to feel like winter here in northern New York. We’ve already seen snow in the area. We’ve got more in the forecast. And energy prices have been rising recently. In this region, tens of thousands of households rely on federal subsidies from HEAP to pay their heating bills. Earlier this week, though, New York had to put the program on pause because of the shutdown. Florence Wright lives about 40 miles south of the Canadian border and is enrolled in the HEAP program.
FLORENCE WRIGHT: I mean, we burn fuel oil. What are we going to do if the heat don’t go through? You know, one tank of fuel is half of our income a month.
PFEIFFER: Elected officials are still battling over this. And in the meantime, what’s been the political reaction to this in your area?
RUSSELL: Well, northern New York is a really conservative region. Folks here voted heavily in favor of Donald Trump during the last election. So while many people rely on help from the government here, many also voted for Trump, who ran on a platform of shrinking government spending.
I talked to Pat Vaughn about all this. She’s a big Trump supporter. I met her at a food pantry in Saranac Lake. She thinks fewer people should rely on programs like SNAP.
PAT VAUGHN: I conserve, and I save, and I can. I home can. I do all kinds of stuff. I don’t wait for handout. I mean, I’m here looking to see what’s there, you know, but I normally just do my own thing.
RUSSELL: Of course, other folks are really frustrated by the cuts. I spoke with James Burton in Saranac Lake. He thinks President Trump’s priorities are really misguided, particularly his plans to renovate the White House while so many Americans are struggling.
JAMES BURTON: If they stopped building the ballroom and put that money into the community, especially communities like this, we would be OK.
RUSSELL: We have seen local and state organizations around the country stepping up to help, but there’s just no making up for the lapse in federal funding.
PFEIFFER: That’s Emily Russell, a reporter at North Country Public Radio in northern New York. Emily, thank you.
RUSSELL: Thanks, Sacha.
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