A new food delivery service in Cleveland is helping refugees whose food assistance benefits were taken away due to cutbacks in the federal budget.
About 2,500 Cuyahoga County refugees, asylees and humanitarian aid immigrants lost funding to SNAP, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, in November when new requirements took effect.
Shortly after, , a non-profit refugee assistance organization, created a delivery service to help make up for the lost meals, helping about 500 refugees per month.
About 20 plastic tote boxes were stacked up and filled with rice, beans, oil and other household essentials at the Re:Source office.
Executive Director Patrick Kearns paired them with 20 more tote boxes he had waiting in a delivery van, freshly filled by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
鈥淭here is frozen halal chicken, noodles, bread, two big bags of corn flour, sardines, bag of potatoes, a couple other things, milk is in there too,鈥� Kearns said.
Staffers packed up the truck in single-digit temperatures, just a couple of days after the biggest snowstorm of the season and hit the snowy roads for several hours to make 20 deliveries.
鈥淚 enjoy it," Re:Source staffer Tantine Mukonge said. "I don't like them feeling hungry. I need to feed them. I need to do it. That is important for me.鈥�
All of the households on this delivery route were dependent on SNAP and most of them had five to 11 people living in them, meaning lots of children.
"She was thinking (about) how they're going to find the money to feed the kids," Mukonge said about one of the parents on the delivery route.
Kearns pointed out that SNAP was something these refugee families were guaranteed when they arrived in the United States.
鈥淚t feels, in many ways, as a broken promise," Kearns said. "Because this was an agreement we made that these services would be available. That's been removed and not only financially destabilizing, but emotionally difficult.鈥�
He said the federal refugee program was created to help people and provide grocery assistance because it was something these families need.
鈥淭he rationale is they are fleeing a conflict zone with a family fully intact," Kearns said. "Unfamiliar of the language and culture, starting life from zero, here's something that can help them get their feet under them as they build towards self-sufficiency, as they figure things out.鈥�
The delivery program is funded for the next six months, although Re:Source hopes to extend that. Deliveries take place every Tuesday and each family gets about 80 pounds of food per month, which Kearns said is enough food for the families to last 10-14 days.
鈥淭hat is a significant chip out of the block, but half full is not really a great place for anybody to be.鈥� Kearns said. 鈥淭here's still a significant amount that they're having to stretch and figure out.鈥�
Still, it鈥檚 an amount appreciated by families on the delivery route.
鈥淭hey are full. They are happy," Mukonge said. "They cannot go to the market to buy the food, but they are happy now with the kids. They are eating nicely.鈥�
