Renee Tavarez

I grew up in a low income family. My family received SNAP benefits. I recall often seeing my mom buy snacks, soda, sweets, junk food etc while our primary dinners were spaghetti and ramen noodles. I can share directly that is 4 siblings would run through those snacks rather quickly. Now to go a little bit further beyond that, I can also say that I know there are individuals who also sell their SNAP benefits. Meaning they hand their card to a friend, the friend goes grocery shopping and then gives the cash for those groceries to the person who gave them the card. I haven’t seen this firsthand in Somersworth, but I can’t say with absolute certainty that where I grew up, there were also abuses from businesses. There were stores where you could go in and sell your SNAP. You would go in and “buy groceries” (but not buy anything at all), the teller would bring you up and hand you back the cash amount for your purchase minus a small fee. While I don’t believe that this bill addresses all of the problems that there are with the SNAP abuses. I believe that it is a major step in the right direction. The grocers that are abusing the system by not selling actual groceries are bodegas. They sell chips, soda and candy. They don’t sell meat or produce so it may be harder for them to continue their scamming. Aside from the abuses of the system, I also fear for the health of these children. It wasn’t until I got old enough to reclaim my own health and gained my own awareness that I realized how terrible our food actually is. With the supplemental nutrition assistance program, allowing for anything, but that to be purchased, we are feeding a very unhealthy next generation. Our school lunches are provided at a much higher quality than we are allowing our parents to put into the households on government provide provided assistance. I support this bill wholeheartedly.