Sisters pool resources to feed families during SNAP uncertainty

“You have the pinto. You have the tomatoes. We’ve got the kidney bean.”

Over the last few weeks, sisters Jeanna and Amanda Peoples have been getting pretty resourceful. 

The sisters, who live in Lexington, have four children each.

“If you have four children, each of them eats three meals a day, sometimes two to three snacks a day,” said Jeanna Peoples. “That’s four times everything. Plus, I have to eat.”

While they usually can find a way to stretch a dollar, earlier this year, Jeanna Peoples had to have hand surgery and lost her job in the process.

While she’s been trying to get back on her feet, the sisters’ shared resources have been stretched thin.

“When we do get the food like this, like the bowl, I try to make big meals, like, big pots of chili, chicken, chicken noodle soup, things like that,” said Amanda Peoples. “Like a hearty meal.”

As the government shutdown reached its second month, neither sister received SNAP benefits for November.

“At first I wasn’t that nervous, especially because I get my stamps on the third,” said Jeanna Peoples.  “So, I was like, well, I’m not going to get nervous until the third whenever I check it. But I am starting to worry a little bit.”

They have found odd jobs to help make ends meet and dug deep into their pantries to find some extra items.

But they are starting to worry about how long this may drag on.

“I hate it for people who weren’t stocking up,” said Jeanna Peoples. “They were relying on the government and trusting that they would be OK. But it doesn’t look like we are going to be.”

Still, as their pantries, and even their mother’s pantry empties, they have been encouraged to lean into community.

“Make friends with your neighbor and maybe they might have the rice, you might have the meat,” said Jeanna Peoples. “You can come together and do potlucks.”

They said they are hoping that pooling resources can make what little they have stretch to help neighbors as well.

“Sometimes it’s the little gestures that help somebody out in a big way,” Amanda Peoples said. “There’s never anything too small or too big to ask for, especially in a time like this.”

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