As Food Stamp Recipients Brace For Cuts, Middle Tennessee Pantries Plan For Surge In Need

Food stamp recipients in Middle Tennessee are keeping tabs on potential cuts to the program. Food banks are watching the situation as well. Pantries expect a surge in need if federal assistance is slashed.

Linda Gray of East Nashville makes do with $65 a month in food stamps.

“I stretch it out, little portions each day,” she says. “I don’t cook a whole lot like I used to.”

She visits the Salvation Army food pantry when the cupboard runs low. So does Raymond Strange, who does groundskeeping at Bicentennial Mall. He says he worries about what would happen in his community if President Trump’s proposal gets through Congress.

“People get hungry, people get to stealing. They get to doing things,” he says. “If Trump was to remove stamps, there would be some angry people.”

Veteran Stephen Leslie, who is unemployed, says many other programs should be reined in before food stamps.

“They’re going to say, ‘Well, food stamps, people don’t need to be on it,’ ” Leslie says. “But you look at everything, everything the government gives money for, there’s people stealing.”

Leslie says if he loses his $190 a month, he will survive, probably by mowing yards. But he worries about those who don’t have the flexibility to take on odd jobs.