Beverly Bootstraps Expects Increased Pressure As SNAP Benefits Expire

BEVERLY, MA —An older gentleman who had spent some time thumbing through items in the Beverly Bootstraps thrift store in the past made the decision this week that it was time to explore the nonprofit food and housing services organization's benefits more fully and with some urgency.

He had been able to make things work based on some government benefits in recent years. But the recent cut in federal COVID-era SNAP benefits set to expire this week made him decide that he needed to seek some additional help.

"He had never ventured into our services area before (Wednesday)," Beverly Bootstraps Executive Director Sue Gabriel told Patch on Thursday. "But he said on the way out the door he was pleased he had taken that step and had availed himself of services that are available to everybody who needs them."

Gabriel expects that need to only grow from what are already unprecedented levels over the next weeks and months. According to the Greater Boston Food Bank, 647,000 households in the state received federal COVID-19 SNAP benefits over the past two years with the pandemic enhancements adding about $95 per month to the average benefit.

Gov. Maura Healey this week unveiled a so-called "offramp" bill that would fund the added benefits at 40 percent for the next three months, but there seems an inevitability that many of the benefits — always proposed as temporary, but nonetheless which had become an integral part of the food budget for many who received them over the past three years — will eventually regress to pre-pandemic levels.

"We've been messaging to the folks that we already serve for a while to warn them that their SNAP benefits are going to be severely reduced," Gabriel said. "But we also soon expect to be serving more. We're anticipating more visits by the people we have now — we think they will maximize the number of times they can visit — and we anticipate more people who have never come through our doors to visit us over the next couple of months."

It is estimated that the SNAP program, which serves about 41 million Americans, kept about 4.2 million Americans out of poverty through the end of 2021, the latest year for which data is available, according to a study from the Urban Institute.

The benefit reduction comes at the same time Americans are paying about 11.3 percent more for groceries than they did at this time last year, according to the Labor Department’s most recent inflation report.

"D.C. Republicans don't think twice when they fund billions of dollars in tax giveaways to greedy corporations," U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester) said. "But when it comes to hunger in
America — including their own constituents—all of a sudden they can't help but cut food assistance and beat up on poor people."

Yet, while Washington D.C. representatives debate the merits of extending what was to be a temporary program, the practical effects of the lowered benefits combined with ongoing inflation are felt within the walls of community organizations, like Beverly Bootstraps, that must manage the fallout and find a way to keep up with demand the best they can.

"We're averaging 1,200 or more visits a month now," Gabriel said. "That's a lot of visits for us. We think we'll see more. We are currently working with some of our partners to raise some extra money for our own food costs because they are way out of budget.

"We had a sense some of these things were coming. We knew COVID relief would not last forever. We had some sense we had to get ready for some increase in need but we did not know the extent of it."

Gabriel said one of the biggest issues in Beverly is space for the food assistance now required. When the organization moved into the Park Street location eight years ago, she said they could never have envisioned the demand for programs and the level of food insecurity.

"Our building was not designed for the amount of food we are moving," she said, noting Beverly Bootstraps is exploring more storage and program space nearby in the city. "We are really challenged with where we are going to put it all. It's in and out. But it's more in and out than we've ever had before."

Gabriel said the current increase in demand is reminiscent of the Great Recession and its aftermath in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She said the profile of a Beverly Bootstraps client is often someone who has a job but still cannot make ends meet for themselves or their family, largely because of rising housing and food costs.

"That's the level of new need and the depth of it," she said. "And that's on top of that growth because we never really saw the decrease from those levels when they went up back then.

"When we moved into this space we thought we might have some increase but nothing like this. This is sad."

Despite the increased pressure on Beverly Bootstraps, Gabriel said anyone in need is still encouraged to come in and get assistance.

"This is exactly what community is," she said. "Forever, people have helped each other. That's how community works. Whether you are a person who can come in and help, or someone who needs help, we are all in the same community.

"If you need help, we are here to help."

Those looking to donate cash or other supplies to Beverly Bootstraps can do so here.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that in 2020, more than 54 million Americans will not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations.

Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)