Families left to struggle as Food Stamps run out

The Florida Times-Union recently did a piece on families on Food Stamps who are having difficulty stretching their food budget out over the course of the month as food prices increase. One father of three (pictured above) has this story:

Hagins had been a maintenance man all his life.

He fell off a ladder, ripping ligaments in both knees. He lost his trailer, hasn’t been able to work for 10 months now and lives in a small Westside apartment with the help of Community Connections.

Hagins, his wife and three children have been on food stamps for five months now. That $600 used to make it almost the whole month.

“Might be out of bread, but only a few days,” he says. “You can do without bread.”

Now?

It lasts three weeks tops and the family has to go to its church for help.

Hagins, 42, has diabetes and heart trouble. He knows he needs to eat better, but he can’t pay for it.

“If I took $300 a month to buy diabetic food, you think they’d have enough to eat?” he asks, gesturing toward his three kids. “I don’t think so.”

Here’s a link to the article.

Here’s a pdf of the article.