By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
September is Hunger Action Month and staff at Second Harvest Community Food Bank took on a special challenge to raise awareness for a national program
SNAP, also known as food stamps, is a national food assistance program designed to help supplement people's grocery shopping budget, however many will live off this money.
In honor of Hunger Action Month last week, Second Harvest spokesperson Mackenzie Osborn says staff and some community members took on a special challenge
"Where staff and some community members try to do their own grocery list off of the average SNAP allotments," Osborn tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Osborn says SNAP is supposed to be supplemental, but for many that Second Harvest serves, it might be all they have.
"It was really eye opening for us to have to go and buy all of these groceries and still trying to eat healthy and eat the same way that we normally do," Osborn explains. "It was really hard, and it was really eye opening for what people around us are living through every single day."
Osborn says the challenge was intended to help raise awareness of the SNAP program, better known as food stamps, to encourage more people to enroll.
"Because even if it's only a little bit that you end up being approved for, that can help so significantly," Osborn says. "So, we were hoping to be able to bring awareness to this and kind push away that stigma of signing up for SNAP."
Osborn says she hopes to see challenges like this to help bring awareness to more programs at Second Harvest to help more people in the region.