‘NOT SUSTAINABLE’: NEW SNAP REQUIREMENTS COULD LEAVE UP TO 340,000 ILLINOIS RESIDENTS WITHOUT ENOUGH FOOD
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Kenneth Robinson has gotten used to counting dollars and cents at the grocery store.
He can afford eggs with the $150 he receives a month in SNAP benefits, so they stay in his cart. Ground beef or fish, on the other hand, may have to go back on the shelf after he counts prices in line, the 61-year-old Englewood resident said.
“I struggled most of my life. A lot of things are too high, out of my budget,” Robinson said Monday morning at a news conference at Chosen Bethel Family Ministries’ food pantry. “SNAP helps me ease the pain and get those things that I need.”
These calculations are about to get more complicated for Robinson and potentially hundreds of thousands of other Illinois residents, with new SNAP work requirements set to go into effect Sunday. As the deadline looms, officials urged those on SNAP to notify the Illinois Department of Human Services of their work status or eligible exemptions so as not to risk losing benefits.