{"id":189,"date":"2016-11-01T17:31:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T21:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/?page_id=189"},"modified":"2016-11-03T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T19:26:09","slug":"food-insecurity-scranton","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/stateofpa\/scranton\/food-insecurity-scranton\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Insecurity in Scranton"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Britt Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the end of the summer, Stephen Robinson moved to Scranton, PA, with his pregnant girlfriend to be closer to her family. At first, Robinson, a trained computer technician, took a series of part-time, minimum wage temp jobs. Recently, though, he started working the assembly line at Made Right Meats, a local meat packaging plant. Even though it is a full-time position that pays $10.50 an hour, it isn\u2019t enough to support his family. As a result, Robinson is part of the 12- to 14-percent of Scrantonians who are \u201cfood insecure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump has offered a plan to help the millions of Americans who can\u2019t afford or access a sufficient amount of nutritious and affordable food on a daily basis. And at least in Scranton, those like Robinson and his girlfriend, who is pregnant with their second child, have returned the favor by largely tuning them out, as well.<\/p>\n

Robinson says he will vote and he suspects his girlfriend will too, although he hasn\u2019t discussed it with her. But he is \u201cstill not really sure who [his vote] will be for\u201d because his situation doesn\u2019t seem to be a concern of either candidate, he says.<\/p>\n

Those in Robinson\u2019s position fall between the cracks. They\u2019re making too much to qualify for SNAP benefits but don\u2019t earn enough to become self-sufficient. And with a lack of jobs paying a \u201cliving wage\u201d in Scranton, there appears no help on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Even in his new full-time job at Made Right Meats, Robinson will only be earning $21,000 before tax annually to support his soon-to-be family of four. After the government takes their fifteen-percent cut, Robinson is left with less than $1,500 to cover food, transport, rent, healthcare, bills each month.<\/p>\n

The University of Scranton\u2019s 2016 Living Wage Report found that two-parent, two-child families with a single breadwinner needed to earn $44,056 annually before tax to have economic security.<\/p>\n

Earning well below half of the living wage threshold, Robinson, like others in his situation, has turned to community-run services to bridge the gap. Friends of the Poor Food Pantry in Scranton serves over 1000 families each month, with newcomers joining daily. Sister Ann Walsh, who runs the place, says that they are seeing more and more reliance on their services from employed individuals and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve learned,\u201d says Robinson, is that \u201cthe people that are working are struggling more\u201d than those who qualify for SNAP benefits\u2013 essentially government food stamps. Each time Robinson has applied for SNAP his income has been too high but once you\u2019re in, he explains, it\u2019s \u201clax\u201d and you\u2019re in a better position to feed your family then you were when you were working.<\/p>\n

Candace Tripp, who is performing her community service at the Friends of the Poor Food Pantry, has also found that to be the case. Tripp\u2019s husband works in a factory that builds parts for modular homes and earns $8-an-hour, a rate she calls \u201ca good wage.\u201d But the couple and their two kids still rely on government assistance, through the SNAP program, also resorting to food banks to fill their fridge. Not only is it hard to find a decent job as a woman, Tripp says, but in Scranton \u201cit wouldn\u2019t even be worth it for me to work.\u201d By the time she factors in the cost of transport or childcare, she is better off collecting government benefits.<\/p>\n

Employment has been an issue in Scranton for a long time. It\u2019s the type of city the country has heard Donald Trump talk about at length this year. These are areas where manufacturing jobs that paid $25- to $35-an-hour have disintegrated and shifted the majority of the population into the service sector, which pays $9-an-hour at best, explains Doug Long.<\/p>\n

Long, a Manager at the Greater Berks Food Bank in Reading, describes cities like Reading and Scranton as \u201climping through the 2000s\u201d, following the shutdown of two big factories early in the decade. The 2007 recession only compounded the issue creating dramatic increases in poverty and hunger in suburban and rural areas in Northeastern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The lack of employment opportunities that pay a living wage, as opposed to Pennsylvania\u2019s $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, is recognized as one of the largest drivers of food insecurity in the region. But as neither Trump nor Clinton have addressed food insecurity, they have spoken at length about returning jobs to middle America.<\/p>\n

Despite this, visitors of Friends of the Poor Food Pantry appeared disengaged in the political election. Kathy Fisher of the Hunger Coalition says that \u201cthe issues of low income people are left out of the election and policy debates.\u201d Fisher explains that \u201cmany people are left out\u201d and they \u201cprobably feel that it doesn\u2019t matter who I vote for.\u201d For those facing food insecurity, \u201cwhether we are under a Democrat or Republican president,\u201d she says, \u201clife doesn\u2019t change much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson agrees and doesn\u2019t think either candidate will bring back jobs. He thinks that Trump, despite his talk about bringing back manufacturing, is really only out for himself and \u201cif he does create jobs, [they] won\u2019t be good jobs.\u201d Robinson thinks they would be jobs that \u201cbasically just let people survive and not really get anywhere.\u201d With Clinton, he does see her improving education so that \u201cpeople are better prepared for jobs\u201d but as far as creating jobs, \u201cI don\u2019t see that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope that was omnipresent across America during Obama\u2019s first campaign is hard to find amongst those struggling in Scranton. Dr. Joanne Christaldi, who has studied the food insecure population in Scranton, says the sentiment she often hears is that \u201cthe government has all this money and they don\u2019t want to give it to us.\u201d It\u2019s ingrained because, she says, \u201cyou\u2019re into a third generation of people who have lived that life\u201d of struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

Election aside, Robinson believes it\u2019s up to him to make things better for his family. \u201cThings will get better,\u201d he says before concluding: \u201cwinter comes before spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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by Britt Martin At the end of the summer, Stephen Robinson moved to Scranton, PA, with his pregnant girlfriend to be closer to her family. At first, Robinson, a trained computer technician, took a series of part-time, minimum wage temp jobs. 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