File Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
My goodness, what a difference one year makes.
It was just this time last October that Donald Trump and his legion of fellow Republicans were insisting that Trump and the MAGA machine were the true party of the poor and struggling American workers, and that another Trump term would be their salvation.
We will “fight with every measure of our strength and with every ounce of our energy to lift up the working men and working women of America,” Trump said when he broke wind in 2022 about his 2024 presidential campaign. “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.”
Uh huh.
Instead, Trump has unleashed a tsunami of tariff-taxes that will make already unaffordable prices for things that everyday people need every day even more unaffordable.
That nightmare has only begun.
Banging at the door right now is the Trumpster Triumph of killing off health insurance marketplace tax credits, which, we found out yesterday, means that those who have jobs that don’t offer insurance, and for those millions of people who work for themselves, insurance premiums will double next year.
That was all thanks to Trump and the Republican Congress’ “Big Beautiful Bill,” and it’s what inspired even tepid Democrats to shut down the government until the GOP relents.
But, but, but the stock market is thriving.
All of that, however, was just a warm-up for what Trump has done now. With the government shut down, Trump has chosen to halt funding for the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, which is pretty much what we used to all refer to as food stamps.
In a historically-bad moment of MAGA madness, Team Trumpster will cut off the food supply to about 1 in 8 people. That’s like 40 million Americans — not undocumented immigrants — many of whom are already barely eking out a living in deep red cities and states.
Happy Holidays, America, from the man who brought you, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Welcome to “anything” in 2025.
So the part of America that works harder and longer than just about anyone, for the least amount of money, in a world where a one-bedroom apartment eats up about half a paycheck, will see health insurance premiums double and that couple hundred bucks of food assistance every month evaporate.
Now add in about 50,000 federal workers in Colorado working without pay because of the government shutdown. That includes all those must-work-without-a-paycheck TSA agents at DIA making a whopping $34,454 a year.
Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming and want to cast your presidential ballot for a different candidate.
While millions are anxious to offer some serious “I told you so’s” and find a way to stop the insanity, the adults in the room are pointing out that we have a serious problem, and we need to focus on addressing it.
“It’s a crisis in a crisis,” said Joanna Wise, spokesperson for the Food Bank of the Rockies. The nearly 50-year-old program is part of Feeding America, a network of about 200 food banks that receive some federal assistance to work with food providers and farmers to distribute millions of tons of food to pantries and other mechanisms to help get groceries to people.
“Even before the government shutdown, food banks and our network of hunger relief partners across the entire state of Colorado have already been responding to record-high levels of need,” Wise said. “The level of food insecurity right now is higher than it’s been in the past 10 years.”
All kinds of things have led to that problem, Wise said, but just the relentless cost of housing, gas and food has made even getting by a massive challenge for hundreds of thousands of people in Aurora and across Colorado.
While commitments from Gov. Jared Polis and other state officials to pour as much as $10 million into the food-assistance system will be essential, it’s not enough and it’s not sustainable.
“If SNAP benefits aren’t distributed, it’s about $120 million worth of benefits that will not make it out to individuals and families across our state,” Wise said.
All this comes at a time when food banks and pantries were already feeling pressure from people in need and a squeeze on resources.
“Earlier this year, we saw about a 7% reduction in our overall food volume,” Wise said. “That’s about 14,000 fewer meals that we were able to provide.”
Already, a bigger wave has washed in.
“In one day, the Aurora Corps averages 71 food boxes out the door,” said Aurora Salvation Army spokesperson Jennifer Forker. “Yesterday they handed out 138, which is a 94% increase.”
She said that of the new surge of people seeking food, 40% of the families who came in were “first timers to the food pantry.”
Deacon Bob Uphoff, director of Friends of St. Andrew, part of the Queen of Peace Catholic Parish in Aurora, said the recent increased need has nearly been explosive.
“Requests for food baskets have nearly doubled in the last two weeks,” Uphoff said. “We’ve had to turn away guests due to volume limits.”
Food pantry organizers are starting to panic, realizing this is only going in one direction right now, and running out of food is a real possibility if the community doesn’t offer to help.
Ishaq Khan, who helps run the non-profit-based Ansar Pantry said last Saturday had him nearly in tears as a new surge of people came in, anguished and scared.
“It is a very desperate situation,” Khan said. “There were women crying that came for the food.”
He said the usual crowd of about 500 in a day was pushing 900 last week.
“We’re seeing families who have never needed help before,” said Ryan Specht, Manager of Emergency Services at Catholic Charities. “There’s a real sense of worry right now. Even though SNAP benefits haven’t stopped, many are concerned they soon could, and they’re acting proactively to ensure their families are cared for.”
At Catholic Charities Little Flower Assistance Center in Aurora, staff there have also seen a spike in people looking for help. Last week, the center served more than 1,000 people, about 200 more than usual, Specht said.
The helpers desperately need help.
When you’re done reading this, go into the kitchen, collect all the boxes of mac-n-cheese, cans of beans and unopened boxes of cereal you know you can offer up and get them to a food pantry near you that wants and needs them. There’s a list at the bottom of this column with details for some Aurora sites. Some pantries can even take fresh or frozen meats and other groceries.
Khan asked any kind of store, grocer or restaurant to not throw food away. “We’ll even come get it.”
Or — and if you can, make that “and” — get out your credit card and pony up even a few dollars so food banks can get what your neighbors desperately need, and at a far lower cost than what you pay.
“Right now, we are relying on community support more than ever,” Wise said. “The best way people can help is by donating monetarily. Because of our partnerships with manufacturers and farmers, we can stretch every dollar much further — sometimes paying 77% less for certain fruits and vegetables than what you’d pay at the grocery store.”
I’m going to talk my family into steering clear of the restaurants for a few weeks and using that money to help with breakfast or dinner for someone else around here who can’t do that right now.
You should, too.
We can argue about Trump during the next impeachment, but people gotta eat now.
How to donate to Aurora area food banks and pantries:
• The Little Flower Assistance Center urgently needs donations of: Meat, milk, fruits and vegetables, rice, potatoes, beans, cheese, canned and frozen foods. Sorry, no soda, chips or candy. Donations of nonperishable food items, personal care supplies, or financial gifts are gratefully accepted Monday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m at 11149 E. 14th Ave. and at ccdenver.org/donate.
• Friends of St. Andrews are asking readers to send checks to Friends of St. Andrew, 1525 Dallas St., Aurora, CO 80010. “We are establishing an account at ColoradoGives.org and hope to have it activated by mid-November.”
• Food Bank of the Rockies can purchase three meals for every $1 you donate. Go to https://www.foodbankrockies.org/ and click on “donate.”
• The Salvation Army corps of Aurora needs cash to help buy and distribute food. Go to https://aurora.salvationarmy.org/aurora_corps/ and click on donate.
• Ansar Food Pantry, 116251 E. Colfax Ave. No. 208 in Aurora. Donate at this link: https://tinyurl.com/35r3xxyu
Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com
Was struck one time having gone to a business in the same parking lot as a food bank and couldn’t help but notice some of the nice cars driving up, cars that I would never be able to afford driving.
Woof, the propaganda in this op-ed is off the charts, but that’s par for the course for Dave “The Democrats Never Do Anything Wrong” Perry.
There wouldn’t have been any kind of issue of SNAP being cut off if his side hadn’t shut the government down on October 1st. Dave inadvertently gives the game away in his op-ed when he reveals that the vast majority of food stamp recipients don’t actually use it as a “supplemental” means for their grocery haul, and have been brainwashed by the Democrats into believing that it’s supposed to actually cover your entire food bill every month. No wonder they’re freaking out over it being shut off.
All the federal workers currently working for free or being furloughed also would be getting paid if his team hadn’t shut the government down. They never had an issue signing clean CRs before, and even this one wouldn’t have even gone through to the end of November, so they could have used that as part of the ACA subsidy negotiations in the meantime.
Note that it was also the Democrats, not the GOP, that set the expiration date for the increased ACA subsidies that were passed during COVID. That they shut down the government over the rake they stepped on is hardly the GOP’s fault, and they could have had an entire month to get something hammered out for the ACA with none of the drama or insecurity they caused, when they decided to listen to that Millennial moron Ezra Klein that shutting down the government is a form of “resistance.”
Dave also seem to have forgotten that prices were already high long before January 2025, an in fact those ACA subsidies were increased specifically because of the massive inflation that took place during the previous administration, but his side is known for having selective memory on such issues.
How is it that well paid government employees, air traffic controllers even, some long-time employees, don’t have even two dollars in savings to cover a few bills for a week, let alone a few months? Shouldn’t the normal person in that situation be able to use savings and credit to go at least a few months? They act like missing one single check means losing their house, their car, starving, and missing critical medical treatments which means they will most likely die before the shutdown is over.
Late Xennial/Millennial economic paradigms and therapy-speak–“YOLO, LOL, planning ahead for the future is for suckers, no one ever died wishing they’d worked more, I’m spending MY money on Living My Best Life, Eat/Pray/Love!” Hedonism is a lot more exciting than the boring routine of preparing for retirement and living in the same place for 40 years, which is why you see so many of them crashing out when Grammy and Grampy don’t leave them with a free house and cash.
To be fair, the rule of “don’t spend money you don’t have buying stuff you don’t really need” has been ignored going back to the Jones Boomers in the 80s, when savings rates dropped below 10% and stayed there. But they didn’t make that part of a whole online identity like the first group has done, and those people are all in their 30s-early 50s now.
I wonder how the extra 10 million illegals let in during the Biden/Harris administration, most who cannot support themselves, are playing a role in our food banks running dry. How are they feeding themselves and their families?
How to tell a conservative?
Listen for the one whining.
Trump lied when he said, “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.” Instead he has made rich people richer and hard-working people poorer.