Double-Whammied, Hundreds Come For Turkeys

This Thanksgiving, people getting by on food stamps are being hit by a double whammy: On top of recent cuts to the federal assistance program, the holiday comes late in the month, so people have fewer dollars left to get a turkey for their table.

As a result, several food pantries in town saw lines stretching down the block Tuesday. Supplemental food programs have been scrambling to keep up with the increased demand.

The federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as food stamps, was cut back this month, leaving the neediest families with less assistance to get by on. (More cuts loom.)

According to End Hunger Connecticut, 36,210 New Haveners rely on SNAP to get enough food each month.

Food stamps come at the beginning of the month. For many, the money doesn’t last through to the end of the month. With Thanksgiving landing on the 28th, many families on food stamps will have run out, just when they’re looking to load their dinner tables with a Thanksgiving repast.

So they turn to food pantries. Visits to several food donation points Tuesday found long lines of people hoping for a Thanksgiving turkey.

Tuesday afternoon found Newhallville Alderwoman Brenda Foskey-Cyrus (pictured) up to her knees in frozen turkeys in the back of the Dixwell police substation on Charles Street. She was helping out with the Mae Ola Riddick food drive, in memory of the late matriarch of Dixwell.

Riddick used to find 500 turkeys to give away every year at Thanksgiving. When she passed away this year, Matashar Dillon and police Lt. Patricia Helliger (pictured below) took up the mantle, and doubled the goal. They set a challenge of feeding 1,000 families this Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dillon and Helliger said they were close to meeting that goal. That’s thanks in part to a last-minute poultry infusion from philanthropist and Newhallville/East Rock Alderman-Elect Mike Stratton. Stratton rustled up about 200 turkeys in 18 hours after hearing that the Riddick food drive was coming up short.

“He said, ​‘You guys are going to need more turkeys!’” Dillon recalled.

“Turkey just started pouring in,” Foskey-Cyrus said.

Stratton said he was able to draw on support from the St. Ronan Edgehill Neighborhood Association, as well as from members of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association.

Dillon said that she ​“didn’t have a choice” but to pick up the food drive when Riddick passed. ​“There’s a great need here. Times are bad. Lots of people are jobless.”

Even those with jobs can’t always afford food. A 25-year-old woman picked up a turkey and a big box of vegetables. She said she makes $80 a week working at a used children’s clothing store in Milford. She supplements that with $310 in food stamps per month.

“Every day is a battlefield,” she said.

“People are hurting,” Dillon said.

Around the corner at Varick House, a charity connected to the Varick AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue, people were lined up down the block to pick up food for Thanksgiving.

Chyleanna Knight, who’s 40, said she has also been hurt by domestic violence. That’s how she ended up in line for a handout.

Knight said she came to New Haven from Arizona, trying to escape an abusive relationship. She thought she had a place to stay in Massachusetts, then quickly ended up homeless with her two teenage kids, one of whom has Asperger syndrome.

Knight (pictured) said she was able to get an apartment with help from a social services agency but doesn’t have any food for herself or her kids.

“I don’t know where to get food,” she said, and began to cry. She said she just happened upon the line of people outside Varick and joined it when she found out it was a line for food.

Knight said she and her son sleep on the floor so that her daughter can have a bed. ​“We beg for money. We beg for gas,” Knight said. ​“It’s better than the life we left.”

Inside Varick House, workers were handing out various foodstuffs: canned goods, oranges, and turkeys …

… and bags of food.

“We do this every year,” said Marcia Alexander-Major, assistant to the church pastor. She said the pantry would give away up to 250 turkeys this year.

On Tuesday evening at Believe In Me Empowerment Corporation on Dixwell Avenue, too, people lined up down the block in hopes of picking up a turkey and other foodstuffs.

James Walker, director of the not-for-profit agency, said Believe In Me gives food away once a month in the wintertime. He said his organization would hand out about 150 turkeys this Thanksgiving.

“I ran out of food today,” said Diane Chatman, who’s 54. She said her rent is $550 per month; she gets $710 a month in Social Security and $189 in food stamps. She said she can’t make the stamps last through the entire month.

Victoria Pileggi was there with her 12-year-old daughter. Pileggi said they live in a rooming house and get by on food stamps and disability assistance. The food stamps don’t last through the month, she said. ​“We starve. It sucks.”

Nicole Awusah, who’s 39, said she left her job as a cashier last year because she had a baby. She said she makes ends meet by supplementing food stamps with visits to various food pantries in town.

Mayor-Elect Toni Harp (at left in photo) arrived at Believe In Me at 5:40 p.m. and set to work stuffing cans of black-eyed peas into shopping bags.

She said she hopes to lobby Washington to restore the food stamp program to its former strength. She said she also wants to try to get New Haveners to help make sure food banks are full, she said. ​“Those of use who are better off should donate.”