Robyn Stires is the director of Mercy Ministries Food Pantry at Agape Christian Fellowship in Brattleboro, where she has run the program for the past 12 years. She also hosts a podcast, "Blooming in a Cage."
BRATTLEBORO-During the Great Depression, hunger was visible. People stood in long breadlines, and the government began buying surplus food from farmers to feed struggling families - the first steps toward what we now call SNAP.
As someone who runs a modern day breadline, I have a few thoughts and questions.
Over 40 million Americans - about 12% of our population - rely on SNAP benefits each month. That's one in eight people you pass in the grocery store. One in eight children in our schools. One in eight families trying to make ends meet.
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This isn't about laziness or "handouts." It's a reflection of a deeper reality - where the cost of living has outpaced wages, where housing swallows half a paycheck, and where even full-time workers can't always afford a full cart of groceries.
SNAP isn't just a safety net. It's a mirror showing us how many are walking a financial tightrope in what some are calling a Silent Depression.
And 17% of all Americans use a food bank to help put food on the table. Many of them unable to qualify for SNAP benefits but still need help. Many are retired seniors or veterans, but mostly they are people just trying to feed their families.
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So one of my questions is, "Why are so many on SNAP?"
And "why are so many working class families still hungry?"
Americans is in a depression, and no one is talking about it .
The Great Depression taught us that community and compassion can get us through the hardest seasons.
Maybe it's time to remember that again.
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