HAMILTON, Ohio — The money never lasts.
That's what Heather Chasteen tells me with a smile. But that smile quickly fades when she closes an empty cupboard in her kitchen.
Chasteen said she normally gets around $600 in government assistance for food each month. It’s always gone before the end of the month, she said. Because she uses that money to take care of five grandchildren and her dad, who has Parkinson’s disease and rarely gets out of bed.
“We barely scrape by,” Chasteen said. “And it will be that way forever.”
She's sitting in the backyard now, watching her grandkids play football. She was supposed to go to a tournament in Tennessee with them this weekend, but called and canceled her room.
She can’t afford it anymore.
“I can hardly sleep right now,” Chasteen said. “We’re going to run out of money.”
Hear directly from this Hamilton woman in the video below:
I spoke to Chasteen before reports on Friday afternoon suggested the Trump administration will fully fund SNAP benefits while the government is shut down. In a legal filing, the administration previously asked to partially fund the program, which about one in eight Americans use.
And while this story is constantly changing, Chasteen said her struggles are not. Because she was struggling even before she didn't receive her November benefits when she normally would have.
“Times are not good,” Chasteen said. “I just hope everyone is being kind to each other — whatever their situation is.”
This week, her situation was going to two food pantries in Butler County. And for dinner, she drove her grandkids 20 miles away to get a free meal for people having issues with their benefits.
At New Life Mission in Hamilton, she picked up ground beef and taco shells. Felix Russo, director of the community resource center, tells me they set records each day this week for people they served in their food pantry.
“It’s not as easy as you think it is to get out of this situation,” Russo said. “What we see every day are people in the hardest parts of their life.”
Last week, Russo asked the community for donations. He tells me they did a food drive with Kroger, and more than half of the canned goods they received are already gone.
“When you’re walking around with constant uncertainty, that wears on you,” Russo said. “It’s really affecting people.”
Chasteen is trying not to let it. She’s 50. And talks a lot. During most of our conversation, she can barely finish one thought before jumping into another. As her grandkids roll around on the grass, she tells me she's trying to stay positive.
“I love these kids,” Chasteen said.
Then, she takes a big breath and pauses for what feels like an eternity.
“And I worry.”
