The Battle Against Food Scarcity in California
A decade ago, Tammy Jaime lost everything to drugs. She and her husband spent through their savings, lost their home and car, and ended up in the rural northern California mountains, begging for food for their children.
Jaime won her battle against drugs, but finds she’s still struggling to feed her kids. These days, Jaime, 39, is sober, enrolled in college, and working part-time for Cisco Headstart, where she earns $12 an hour. It’s the most money she has ever made, well above minimum wage. But routinely, as the month draws to a close, she and her husband run out of funds, in part because of family medical bills.
“We live from paycheck to paycheck,” said Jaime. “We don’t eat out very much. We don’t have TV. Next week is payday. But then, you know what, my check is gone the next day because it’s all lined up for bills.”
She’s part of a growing demographic. More than four years into the worst financial, housing and unemployment crisis to hit the country since the Great Depression, America’s hunger numbers continue to climb.
About 46 million people in the U.S. are enrolled in food-stamp programs; they receive benefits that average $134 per month per individual, and $284 per household. Millions more are income qualified for food stamps, but aren’t enrolled. Still additional millions don’t qualify for food stamps, but the part-time, low-wage work they can find doesn’t pay enough to cover all their bills. Like Jaime, they juggle expenses and frequently end up with insufficient money to buy enough food for themselves and their children.