Worcester County food pantries brace for SNAP benefit cuts

WORCESTER, Mass. — On Millbury Street in Worcester, the Pernet Family Health Service is cutting the ribbon on a new Customer Choice food pantry.

The new service allows customers to choose their own food off the pantry’s shelves.

Right now, this pantry delivers up to 6-thousand pounds of food a week to more than 100 Worcester families, but there is concern over how many people the pantry can help if SNAP Benefits are cut.

“It’s very frustrating. Sometimes it feels like you’re swimming upstream,” said Joel Wallen, the Associate Executive Director at Pernet. “While there’s an increase in need, we might not have an increase in the amount of food that we can distribute. Unfortunately, this means we are going to have to turn more people away.”

The Pernet food pantry is one of 28 food pantries that partner with the Greater Worcester Food Bank.

“We’re very, very concerned about what’s going to happen if people don’t get their SNAP benefits,” Greater Worcester Food Bank CEO Jean McMurray said.

She tells me there will be enough food available in Central Massachusetts, but she’s hoping the crisis is not long-lived.

“We cannot meet the gap that is being created. For every one meal that a food bank provides with donated food, snap benefits provide 9. So that’s the stark reality we’re talking about,” McMurray said.

As Massachusetts food banks prepare for what might happen next, the heated debate in Washington over the federal government shutdown grows hotter.

Republicans accuse Democrats of playing politics.

Here in Worcester, Congressman Jim McGovern, a Democrat, blames the White House.

“They have the ability to move money around. But they are doing this deliberately, they are weaponizing hunger,” Rep. McGovern said.

If you would like to help the Pernet Family Health Service Food Bank with a donation of any kind, go to Home - Pernet Family Health Service

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