[00:00:00] Speaker A: Today, Bethanstrolo is here from Quincy Community Action Programs to bring us up to date on their programs and services and how you might be able to utilize them. It's always great to talk to you. Beth Ann, thanks for stopping by.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Thank you for informing the community the way that you do and all your colleagues here at Cable do. We really appreciate that.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: You are very welcome. And this is an important time to let folks know about qcap. Right. The services that it provides and questions that are, I'm sure, being raised about some of the programs due to the federal government shutdown. Right?
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Yes. And there are a lot of differences this year and changes. And we're seeing the impact. We in particular at our food center. And as everybody knows, the SNAP benefits have been paused right now. So we have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Massachusetts and many here in our area who are struggling to figure out how they're going to feed their families right now.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Are you hearing from them? Are you seeing the increase? You are?
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: What are they saying about that?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Well, they're desperate for help and worried and uncertain about when they will get their benefits.
We're seeing a tremendous demand. We have about a 450% increase in the number of new people coming to us compared to last year at this time.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: Wait, this is. Say that again.
450% increase of new people. Of new people.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: We typically, around this last week, we typically would have about 20 new clients a week.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: We had 110.
I think that's 450.
It is a tremendous increase. And that pace has kept up all week. This week we are inundated, which we are ready to help everybody. But it speaks to the need and the uncertainty and the fear that many people have about how they're going to feed their families right now.
This benefit is critical. It's life saving. And it's a health safety issue for many people because they can buy the nutritious food that they need. And many may also come to a food pantry because. Because some of the SNAP benefits are quite low, others are higher depending on your income and how many people in your family.
But so many people still supplement. But what we're seeing are new people who have never come to us for help before who were able to get by on that.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: On the SNAP benefit. Yeah.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: And so that is.
There's not really an end in sight right now. While there was an announcement that roughly 50% of the benefit would be restored this week, that number seems to be Changing even as of this morning. But no one has seen that yet.
And we do know that not Everybody will get 50%.
There is information that has been provided that indicates that some people who might be an example would be someone who is elderly, a senior citizen on social, Social Security, fixed income.
That person might get about $126 a month in a SNAP benefit. The data that we just saw this week was that they will get $12 this month.
So that tells you this is not 50% for everybody.
We're extremely concerned about that. And people are. They're scared.
They don't know when it's going to end.
It's a bit. The information is not clear all the time.
So we're there. Our staff are at our Southwest Community Food center helping people.
They are really busy. The phones are ringing off the hook. But we have plenty of staff who are really dedicated. We call it a small but mighty group of people of staff and volunteers who are working really hard right now. And we're kind of supplementing it with asking some other staff to go over there and help to make sure.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: All hands on deck.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Exactly. It's really pretty shocking.
It's busier than we ever saw it during the pandemic. It's about twice as many clients as we saw during the height of the pandemic. So it is a crisis.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: It really is a crisis for many people who rely on this.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: For folks who don't know, it's located on Copeland Street, Brewer's Corner area. Right.
Brightly painted, vivid colors building. Who can utilize that food pantry bath.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Then anyone can go there.
Anyone can go there on a first visit. We do not require income documentation, but certainly everyone on SNAP is eligible for services there. But any community. We primarily serve Quincy, but we have people coming from all over the area, depending on their situation.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Certainly. Yeah.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: And there's parking. It's 18 Copeland Street. So there is a parking lot there. And right now it's probably full and busy, but.
But you can, you know, there's room and it's fully accessible and we encourage people to go because this is a difficult time for many people.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And is it open every day, Beth Ann?
[00:05:16] Speaker B: We're open every day. We're open longer, seven and a half hours a day. There's no other pantry in the area that is open like that. But we are every day. And on Wednesdays we have adjusted hours so we can help people who are working during the day. So we do 11 to 6:30 on Wednesdays. Every other day it's 9:00 to 4:30.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Okay, very good.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: So we're there for people who are working. Many of the people we see are.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Working, is that right?
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Many, many.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Just trying to. Well, it's meant to be a supplement to their budget. Right. Not to fully fund their grocery bill.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: Exactly right.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: So they are working toward that. Probably trying to get more hours at their jobs to fill that gap.
So I'm assuming you need a couple of things. You probably need donations and you need volunteers, right?
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yes, yes, both. Both. So this time of year is also always our busiest time of year. You usually talk with us around this time of year about our holiday drive, which we are doing for Thanksgiving and the December holidays. And we do a gift, big gift drive for the December holiday right now. We have put in the past couple weeks we, we've done a special appeal to the community to ask for help to deal with this crisis though, the SNAP crisis. We need to buy more food.
We had to decrease our food line item this year because of other budget cuts that were happening connected to the, to federal funding and state funding.
So we are looking to increase our food line. We're buying more food right now. We have to, to meet the demand.
So we have put an appeal out to the community. We've had people be incredibly generous already.
But we still have over $100,000 to raise to keep our food center going this year, which is more than typical for us. But that's due to some of these budget cuts that we had recently.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: So is the best way to help a monetary donation?
[00:07:13] Speaker B: The best way to help is a monetary donation. We can buy food, food for a much lower price per pound than we can than people donating the food. So the best way is through a cash donation.
We do need volunteers right now based upon this and we ask the people if they can volunteer, make a three hour a week commitment. So one day for a three hour slot.
And ideally if they can commit to November and December, that's helpful versus just coming in once. And you know, we know it's hard for a lot of people because their lives are busy, but if they can, we really need help right now.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: So. Well, you're probably trying to put a schedule together of volunteers. Right. So you know how you're staffed and when you need help.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Right, right, right.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: So folks should reach out to you, either the main office phone number. Right.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Or the website actually directly to our food center.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Oh, to the food center.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Is this helpful or. Yes, to the 471-0796, number 0796.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Right. To the Food center or qcap.org and qcap.org.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Yes. If they go to our website, they can get connected to the volunteer and certainly get connected to the donation.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Okay, okay. Is the state stepping at all to help Bethann? I know that the governor had mentioned releasing some funds to help.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah. If you're seeing that those funds are intended for the food banks, not the food pantries. So.
And that was kind of an advance funding that was already scheduled to happen.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: And that will help the food bank buy more food. And we do get food from the food bank.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: The Greater Boston Food Bank.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: The Greater Boston Food Bank. That's how we. We get really the. It's the primary source of our inventory.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: So that's big picture help.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: QCAP is Quincy help.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. Right, right, right. I think the governor has made a decision that the state cannot fill this federal gap. This is a really essential resource for people and has been around forever. We have never, ever seen SNAP put on pause like this.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: So used to be called food stamps.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yep, that's right.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: It's been around for a long time.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Late 60s, I think it started. Yeah. Down in West Virginia, I think is where it began.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was, you know, it was intended also to not just help people, but also to help farmers and the people manufacturing food in the country. And that's another sort of side negative impact right now that the groceries, the grocers, the supermarkets, the small stores who take snap, they are missing a significant source of revenue right now for sure.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: And that affects their employees as well in their businesses. So it's a trickle down ripple effect.
And even once benefits are restored, as I understand, it takes a while to kind of go through the system to get their SNAP benefits recharged.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: So this could go on for an extended period.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: No one has anything this week, despite this announcement that happened at the beginning of the week. And it's not clear when it will get posted to people's accounts.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: So. So now time is critical to help.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Okay.
All right. We should also talk about another benefit from qcap, your fuel assistance program, which may also be affected.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Right, Yep. Yeah, yep. This is another. So we do not. There has been no federal allocation of fuel assistance to the state yet because it is completely part of the October 1st federal budget. Fortunately, in Massachusetts, the state works very well with all the fuel assistance agencies like QCAP around the state. And there was some carryover money, federal carryover money from FY25 that we are providing emergency assistance to households who are about to run out of heat. Those are the only people who can get help right now. We are actively taking applications. We encourage everybody to come and apply.
People have been applying since September, October. That's when we do a lot of the application review to get everybody ready for the November 1 start.
But it is. The actual benefit is provided on a very limited basis right now due to the shutdown.
We're very anxious about the resolution of that and concerned that the federal office in Health and Human Services that managed the allocation of fuel systems to all the states. Everybody's been fired.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: So there is no office.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: So there's very few people left. People have been moved around.
And there will be a limited capacity to get that money out the door once the shutdown ends. So we're hopeful but concerned about that. And we'll be watching that closely. And there's advocacy groups around the country that will be pushing really hard to make sure.
And there's members of congressional delegations on both sides of the aisle who care tremendously about fuel assistance. It's another critical life safety resource for folks.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Yeah. These have been traditionally bipartisan programs, right. Throughout administration.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yes.
So we're watching that closely. But we encourage people to apply because when it does come through, they'll be certified and we will be able to order deliveries for them.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Get on the list, basically. Exactly.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Get on that list. Okay.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: And if you have. If you heat with gas or electricity, there is a moratorium right now, thankfully, in Massachusetts, people have. For many years, the utility companies have agreed to do moratoriums during the heating season. They started it early this year and to make sure because of the shutdown that no one would. Their heat would not be shut off.
So everyone who heats with that should have heat right now.
But if you heat with deliverable oils, propane or oil.
Deliverable fuels. Excuse me, Then those folks were only able to serve people who are at the very end of their tank.
And that's nerve wracking for people and will be. You know, it's not a very efficient way for us to run the program. And because they'll have to come back again and we'll be notifying the oil vendors. You can only do this much right now?
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: So it creates a lot of confusion and a little bit of chaos and certainly a lot of extra work.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: And anxiety.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: And anxiety, yeah. Tremendous anxiety, sure. We've had many clients come in, especially elderly people who.
And their system may not be working well. And we don't have much of a resource right now because of the shutdown to repair heating systems. So.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Which you traditionally do, right?
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: And we will. We can do a little bit of it right now, depending on the situation.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Just to kind of limp it along.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: But many people are, you know, keeping their heat.
Won't turn it on. They're bundling up.
We really spend a lot of time educating our clients to say, don't turn your stove on and open your stove as a way to heat. That is dangerous.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Yes. Space heaters are dangerous if they're not used correctly.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Exactly.
And traditionally, the fire chiefs have always been our supporters of this program because they know what the results of doing that can be.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: And how it can really cause major.
It could be tragic to be tragic.
So we are spending a lot of time telling clients right now, don't do that.
And we encourage everyone to pay attention to that.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. The number to Contact Fuel Assistance, 617-657-5301.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: At QCAP, we should also talk about the Head Start program that QCAP oversees.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Head Start is another federally funded program. We have a mix in our program of federal and state funds.
We are open and delivering services, and we are in every program. I should have said that at the beginning. Everything we do, we are doing right now. We are able.
We have managed to conservatively over the years, and we're stable financially, so we're able to keep things going. Despite the fact that we don't have some of our federal contracts in Head Start. We do have our federal contract. It's a contract that started in FY25. But there are programs around the state and around the country who are have stopped servicing Head Start children to some partially, some completely, because they don't have their funding. And there's anxiety around whether they will ever get the funding.
So that's the other thing that's different this time in this shutdown than previous shutdowns.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: The unknown.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: The unknown and the worry from what we've watched all year that even though federal programs might be appropriated, that they're being held back and not provided to communities. So we're watching that, of course, very closely as the shutdown hopefully will come to an end and we move into a continuing resolution, which means that funding should be available to a certain extent.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Okay, so for folks who don't, Head Start is preschool education, right?
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Yes, mostly, yes.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Rosemary and Archie Wahlberg center over on Prairie street in Quincy Point. Yes.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Right. The former St. Joseph School.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: That's right, yeah.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: And we serve about over 200 children in that school.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: And serve other children through home based programs and serve pregnant women.
So we encourage people to call. And we're fully open in the building. We have toddler classrooms and preschool classrooms. And it's a beautiful building, a great center.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Yes, it is.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And we're rebuilding our playground right now.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Oh, is that right?
[00:17:42] Speaker B: That's kind of an exciting thing we have happening. And yes, it's really fun.
We're about. I don't know if it's happened yet, but there's going to be a little Touch a Truck event for the kids with the landscaper who's doing the project, M.J. nichols. Great company.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Fun bulldozers and dump trucks.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah, everyone's really excited about that. So the kids have just been fascinated by watching the playground from inside the building being renovated.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Sure. So are you seeing requests from other communities for the Head Start program that have been impacted?
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Well, you can't do it that way in Head Start. You must be served in your community.
So the state is carved up and each Head Start agency serves specific communities.
In our case, we serve Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth, Milton and Hull. And that's all we can do.
So it's a challenge for those communities that aren't open.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I think you mentioned Brockton is one of them. Right. And huge city. So I'm sure There's more than 200 children impacted. Yeah.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: And that impacts their families. Typically. They're working parents, right?
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: What do they do with their kids? Right.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Exactly, Exactly. No, it's a crisis. It's a crisis.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: It's not an understatement.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah, right, right, right.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Well, QCAP is there for sure to help here, at least on the South Shore. So anything else we should let folks know about right now? Bethany?
[00:19:10] Speaker B: You know, I think we just want to encourage people to come and get help because we are here, we're open, our staff do an amazing job. They are remarkable. Especially at our Food center right now where they don't have a minute to stop and come call, make appointments, come in, you can walk in. We have walk in service at the Food center and over at our main office on Hancock street where fuel assistance happens.
And we just encourage people, despite all of this in the news that they hear there are services available.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: I'm glad you're here to tell folks that, because they might not be aware, they might be afraid even to try and reach out if they do need help. So they shouldn't be correct.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Everyone should keep coming for assistance.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Okay, good.
So I'll just give out the numbers again, if that's okay. For folks, for your, for your food pantry, 617-471-0796. For fuel assistance, it's 617-657-5301. The main office in Quincy Center, 479-8181. On the
[email protected], social media as well.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: So you are definitely out there and able to get a hold of.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yes. Yes, we are.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Beth Ansel, great to see you.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: Joe, please come back if we can be of any further assistance.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: We will. Thank you so much for all your work, too.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: You're welcome.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: You're welcome. And thanks for watching us here at AM Quincy. I'm Joe Catalano and we'll see you next time.
