ROCK HILL, S.C. — Betty Ferguson normally gets $1,000 on the second of every month to feed her family of five.
But this past Sunday, nothing.
“I got 22 cents,” Ferguson said. “That’s it.”
She is one of the new faces at Pilgrim’s Inn food pantry. Her first visit there in 10 years.
“I think it’s really wrong doing people like this,” she said.
A federal court ruled that the USDA must use $5 billion in reserve money to help 45 million people who will see their SNAP benefits lapse this month.
Amy West said she needs that money to feed herself, her daughter and granddaughter.
“I’m hoping for anything,” West said. “I will take whatever.”
The White House Press Secretary said it’s probably half of what recipients get now. It may not come for West’s normal payment on the eighth of the month.
She works, like many people, at food pantries.
“Not all jobs pay enough to pay your bills,” said West.
The founder of the Love N Cherish Family Center said so many of the people with incomes below the poverty level show up worried.
“It seems like they are in a panic mood,” Mary Roseboro said. “They are afraid that it’s going to run out.”
“People are just waiting to put food on the table for their children,” Gordon Bell with Hope of Rock Hill said.
Ferguson said if this isn’t enough, she will stop eating.
“I’ll feed my grandkids before I feed myself,” she said.
Organizers said this isn’t a problem that can be easily solved by getting a job. They said most people on SNAP are working.
Channel 9 was told that’s 90-95 percent of the people who come to the pantry.
WATCH: Mecklenburg, Cabarrus counties address SNAP benefits
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
