by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

I’ve got to hand it to Donald Trump: when he puts his mind to something, he really gets things done.

A case in point is his recent cruel and indefensible cessation of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments, which had provided average monthly $332 per household disbursements to 42 million needy Americans.

Trump really fought for this one. After two federal judges ruled it unlawful and ordered him to resume partial payments, he took to Truth Social to claim, in his inimitable style, “SNAP BENEFITS … will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” This brilliant move led a federal judge in Rhode Island to order the administration to fund SNAP immediately and fully. Peeved at being bossed around, he commanded his Justice Department to take the case to his handpicked Supreme Court, which, as expected, gave him the authority to deny delivering $4 billion worth of food to hungry people. Then this week the administration ordered states that had been paying full SNAP benefits to stop and “undo” payments already distributed above the 65% threshold.

Rich white Americans haven’t worked this hard to starve poor people since our government burned crops and killed the livestock of North America’s indigenous peoples in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. And, all this has unfolded while untold billions continue to flow uninterrupted for weapons, munitions, tactical and surveillance gear, fat bonuses and salaries for the masked, anonymous goons at ICE and CBP to abuse, terrorize, kill, and deport our neighbors, legal residents or otherwise. Oh, and work also continues unabated on that $300 million royal ballroom nobody asked for at the White House.

Down here on earth, the suffering continues as we the people try to get by as late stage capitalism lurches toward authoritarianism and/or fascism. Predictably, the end result of all this this money, time, and energy spent on screwing poor people has translated into increased strain on food banks and pantries across the country, including locally.

“This whole week we’ve been inundated with calls,” said Gina Hernandez, food pantry manager at Service Center for Independent Life, on November 7. “Where before we had one or two a day, now we’re having dozens. We’ve had a dramatic increase in phone inquiries for our food pantry, as well as walk ups. More people showing up. More people in need.”

SCIL’s 13 employees and 75 volunteers serve primarily senior and disabled people throughout the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire, including Pomona, Upland, Montclair, and yes, Claremont.

Prior to Trump cutting SNAP in late October, SCIL was making weekly grocery deliveries to 365 clients. As of last week, that number was 458.

“We are going to cap it at 500 for deliveries … so we’re quickly approaching that. And once we cap out at 500 we’ll have to start a waiting list,” Hernandez said.

Go to scil-ilc.org to learn about becoming a volunteer or donating.

Inland Valley Hope Partners, which covers western San Bernardino County and eastern LA County, has seem a similar uptick in demand. Its largest food bank is in Ontario, with smaller locations at the Joslyn Center in Claremont, and at House of Joy in San Dimas.

“We were serving about 75 families per day, and just that first week in November, we were serving over 100 families a day,” said Isaac Vega, IVHP’s food security program manager.

This week that number jumped to 125.

“It’s sad to see,” Vega said. “It’s unfortunate that it’s come to putting a lot of families in the position of having to make harder decisions. Life’s already tough enough, and expensive enough. People are already struggling. Being put in that position by the government has left them with a harder choice, of where food is going to come from or how much they’re going to purchase. Are they going pay a portion of rent and a portion of utilities? I feel bad, especially when they have children, because they’re the ones that are going to suffer a little bit more than the adults. It’s difficult to see.”

To learn about donating or becoming a IVHP volunteer, go to inlandvalleyhopepartners.org.

Newlife Church in Pomona has operated a food pantry for 16 years. Prior to Trump’s SNAP cuts it had been feeding about 800 families each Friday (except the first Friday of the month, holidays, and during inclement weather) through its drive-through food distributions. This past week saw 913 families seeking help.

“It has impacted us in terms of we’re having more people come over looking for food,” Lein said. “We’re getting a lot of new people.”

Newlife’s food pantry has a paid staff of three and relies on some 40 volunteers to pick up donations from Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and local grocery stores and man its Friday distributions.

Lein has been in charge for eight months.

“I see that it touches a lot of people’s lives and helps a lot of people,” he said. “It It’s pretty inspirational, especially with the volunteers, because there’s a lot of pretty faithful volunteers here. Without them, I don’t know how this thing would run, because they take on a lot.

“It’s definitely satisfying. If you really think about how many people we impact — we say 913 families, but that’s like 13,300 and some people in that one month that were in a sense fed through our food bank. So, it’s pretty amazing to see how about 40 people can make such a difference in so many peoples’ lives.”

“It’s definitely rewarding. I’m glad I’m part of it.”

Go to newlifepomona.com to learn about becoming a volunteer or donating to its food bank.

It’s unclear when or even if full SNAP benefits will return to pre-cruelty levels. In the meantime, the most vulnerable among us — 79% of SNAP households include a child, an elderly person, or a nonelderly individual with a disability — continue to be targeted, used as leverage by an administration hellbent on inflicting as much pain as possible on the downtrodden while enriching the wealthy class at every turn.