KEIZER, Ore. (KPTV) – Nearly 800,000 Oregonians who rely on federal food assistance lost SNAP funds this weekend due to the government shutdown.
The Trump administration said Monday they would allocate contingency funds to partially distribute those benefits, but families across the metro are struggling as they start their first week without that support.
Samantha Watts, a single mother of five children ages 2 to 12, faces impossible choices without her monthly SNAP benefits.
“Do I pay rent and keep a house over our head? Do I starve?” Watts said.
Watts works full-time but lives paycheck to paycheck. She left a domestic violence situation, lived in a shelter and recently moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Keizer shared by the family of six.
She has been receiving SNAP benefits since she turned 18 and was supposed to have $650 to put food on the table this month.
“It’s like dangling a donut in front of a child,” Watts said of the administration’s promise of partial benefits.
She learned the money wasn’t coming through a notification.
“We’re already struggling. And during November of all months, during Thanksgiving. Like what do we have to be thankful for now,” Watts said.
As her day-to-day budget becomes tighter, a Thanksgiving meal fund is nonexistent.
“TV dinners? It sounds pathetic and I laugh about it but I have to laugh so I don’t cry,” Watts said.
Her demanding work schedule from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. leaves little time for alternatives like food banks. She picks up her children from daycare, handles bath time, homework and bedtime, then repeats the routine the next day.
Without knowing when her SNAP card could see funds again, Watts faces daily decisions about basic necessities.
“As of right now I have to decide if I want to pay for toilet paper or pay for milk for my kids,” Watts said.
No matter what happens, her kids have to eat—as does everyone else.
“How are they doing this to the people who are 90 years old and don’t have family? Who don’t have income? That live on disability and food stamps every month? That live paycheck to paycheck like I do? It’s not fair. It’s not fair to anybody,” Watts said.
You can learn more about food assistance in Marion County and Polk County here. Information about Oregon Food Bank locations can be found here.
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