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Source: Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TexasNov.self storage 17--Every dollar counts for Keshia Herrera.The 26-year-old Harlingen resident, a single mother, is one of more than 370,000 Rio Grande Valley residents who are part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.Starting this month she will see a decrease in her benefits, as will everyone else who receives what were once called food stamps. An across-the-board reduction in SNAP benefits took effect Nov. 1. Now, Herrera says, she will have to make adjustments in how she feeds her two sons, Noah, 3, and Jonah, 2."Now I have to stretch out my money so it will last till I get paid. I buy what I can afford," she said.For a typical family of three the cut is $29 a month. But Herrera says her benefit reduction will be much more. "I'm just trying to make it last. Now I buy a lot of canned food, you know, the food items that last longer," she said.Social service organizations say the cuts will have a ripple effect and they expect to see more families in need.Some say the decrease could add up to as much as almost a week's worth of food for some people. That will mean more people needing help from food banks and more people seeking meals at shelters, the organizations say.Grocery stores expect less business, which could force them to cut the number of hours their employees work.Benefits were reduced because a 2009 stimulus package passed by Congress to help Americans cope with the national recession has come to an end. Congress that year temporarily increased SNAP benefits by 13.6 percent as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But October 2013 was the final month of the stimulus, as far as food stamps are concerned.The cutback will leave more than 4 million Texans to make abrupt changes in their shopping habits when they receive their new balances this month, social service organizations say.How much each family will receive depends on a number of variables, including income, household size and expenses. So it is hard to say exactly how much benefits will change, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service says. But if you live in a household of four and nothing else changes, your benefit will go down by $36 a month.A family of three will see a $29 cut. Smaller households don't escape the reduction, either, as two�erson households can expect a decrease of $20 while individual SNAP beneficiaries will have their benefits cut by $11.SHELTERS AND FOOD BANKSLoaves and Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley, based in Harlingen, says it is already seeing a direct impact from the cuts. So far this month, the number of breakfasts it is serving is up by about a third and the number of afternoon meals is up by about 10 or 15 percent, said Pastor Bill Reagan, executive director of the multi-service organization that serves meals to the needy, provides a shelter for the homeless and other services."That's just starting a couple days after the start of the month. So toward the end of the month, when benefits start running out, that's where it's really going to make for a big pinch," Reagan said.He attributes the increase in meals served to the cuts in SNAP benefits."The number of meals we've been serving had actually gone down a little bit this year, 2 or 3 percent compared to last year. And now all of a sudden to see such an uptick so quickly at the same time that the SNAP cuts happened, it's just got to be related," he said.Food stamps, Reagan said, are meant for people who live at the poverty level, about $11,000 for a single person, who will be losing $11 per month in benefits."You know $11 for one person per month doesn't sound like too much. But you're talking about people who are already at or below the poverty level," he said. "For somebody that much on the edge, it's really quite a lot."One way of looking at the cuts is in terms of the number of meals lost, says Reagan and others.Reagan says the cuts can translate into almost a week's worth of meals per month for one person, if you figure, as some in the government do, that one meal on food stamps costs about $1.50.For a family of four, losing $36 monthly, the cuts mean 72 meals less per month, assuming a cost of $2 per meal, said Omar Rodriguez, manager of communications and advocacy for the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley."It is significant when you put it into terms of meals," Rodriguez said.Over the course of one year, the number of meals lost adds up. Here are estimates for losses in terms of dollars and number of meals for fiscal year 2014:- Hidalgo County -- $28 million, almost 14 million meals- Cameron County -- $13 million, 6.5 million meals- Willacy County -- $757,000, just under 400,000 meals.Rodriguez said these numbers were produced by the Texas Food Bank Network, which aggregated statistics from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission."So those recipients may skip those meals because they can't 迷利倉urchase them, or they will seek help from charities like the Food Bank. And when that happens, we're probably going to see a strain on the amount of food that we can provide," Rodriguez said."What's going to happen is we may have to give out less food; you're going to have people receiving less food, even from us, which we do not want to do. We want to give out enough food to make sure that people have access to the nutrition they need."The common perception is that, oh, charities can handle it. Well, charities cannot handle it," he said of cuts.The Food Bank of the RGV, based in Pharr, serves Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties, providing food to 230 agencies in the three-county area, including the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs, various churches and food pantries.Jim Coffman, director of the Harlingen Food Pantry, expressed how the decrease will affect the food pantry. "I would assume it's going to increase our food distribution, our cost for the food we get, client numbers and the number of volunteers that work here," he said."The people are hungry, there's no doubt about that; America's hungry," he said.The food pantry will do its best to feed the people, he said.SUPERMARKETSGrocery stores also expect to feel the impact, which could have a ripple effect on people who work for the stores.An official with A&V Lopez Supermarkets says that less business from food stamps might mean that he would have to cut the number of hours his employees work.Lopez operates one store in San Benito, one in Los Fresnos and four in Brownsville."Most of our supermarkets are in low income areas, so they are going to get hurt," A&V Lopez general manager Eliseo Castro said."Typically, at the end of the month when most of the people have finished their food stamps, their business pretty much dies out. So all this means is that it's just going to die out a lot quicker, a lot earlier in the month."Lone Star cards, the cards used in Texas for SNAP benefits, account for as much as 30 to 40 percent of business at his stores "in poorer neighborhoods," he said.But the cutbacks will affect all grocery stores, he said."You have less food stamps out there, you have less money to spend, less business for everybody," he said."I'll have to cut back on expenses and payroll is always the biggest expense. We're just going to have to wind up cutting back on employee hours, which means that we'll have more people making less money, again."He's not sure yet how much he will have to cut back."You know, if 30, 40 percent of my business is Lone Star and I lose 10 percent of it, I'm going to have to decrease my hours by that much, probably," he said.At the same time, his customers will be making their own adjustments."You cut their Lone Star, they're going to have to cut back on what they spend or be a little more careful as to what they spend. I don't know how they're all going to adjust to it. But everybody will have to make some kind of an adjustment," he said.HERRERA'S STORYHerrera, who dropped out of high school at age 17, entered the SNAP program in 2009 when she received $500 a month for her and her two sons. "I needed help because their father wasn't paying child support. I needed to support my kids," she said.She currently works at Loaves and Fishes part-time where she splits her time between secretarial work and kitchen duties."Everyone here has such a great attitude, I love working here," she said."I work all the time now and I don't get a lot of time for myself, but that's OK," she said.She says being part of the SNAP program has helped her in ways that she probably wouldn't have without the program.Through the program she was able to apply for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. TANF is a federal program that helps families achieve self-sufficiency.The program provided daycare for her sons so she could work with the Texas Workforce Commission to find a job."My caseworker really guided me and helped me a lot," she said.Herrera doesn't plan to be on SNAP benefits for a long time, just for the time being while she gets her head above water."I'm not ashamed of my Lone Star card. My kids are healthy, I cook homemade meals for them and they are happy," she said.As for the criticism, she hasn't received any. "People shouldn't focus on the negative. Focus on the positive in these programs and think before you judge others," she said.Keeping with her plan in moving forward with her life and her boys she plans on going back to school, getting her GED and achieving her goal."Some day I would love to have a better job. Eventually when my boys are older I will go back and get my GED," she said.She adds, "It helps to have goals. Also, being positive and praying help as well."ksommer@valleystar.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) Visit Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) at .valleymorningstar.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉