Heather is seven months pregnant. While she is excited about having her baby boy in her arms soon, she’s more scared about how she will be able to provide for him.
Right now, she and her husband eat once a day. Despite being pregnant, Heather skips breakfast and lunch so her 2-year-old daughter can have something to eat.
Seven months ago, her family’s situation was completely different. Her husband worked as a truck driver and made $50,000 a year.
While working, her husband got into an accident with his truck and lost his job shortly after. Ten days later, they found out their baby was on the way. After the news, her husband quickly found a job, but had to take a drastic pay cut and now makes less than $20,000.
“This has been one of the hardest years of my life with that happening and having to get ready for another baby.”
“Our bills matched our income and it made it hard,” Heather said. “This has been one of the hardest years of my life with that happening and having to get ready for another baby.”
Though the family doesn’t have any extra money to buy items for the baby, Heather is doing everything she can to help. Since day care would be more expensive than what she could earn if she found a job, the stay-at-home mom takes online surveys for hours to help buy baby items with the Amazon gift cards she gets paid in.
While she mostly has all the items ready for the baby, she is more worried about feeding her family at the moment. After paying their utility bills and expenses, they don’t have enough for everyone to eat three meals a day, even with the $40 monthly SNAP benefits they receive.
“I spend a lot of time stressed. How long is this food going to last me? I’m sitting there counting and recounting the food in my basket to make sure I’ve got enough to at least make it through the majority of the month,” she said.
The expectant mother knows that eating a healthy diet is important for the baby, but the family can barely afford to buy food, much less fresh produce.
“It’s really hard to eat healthy and not have money. My fridge is full of carbs right now,” Heather said. “It’s cheaper for me to go to McDonalds and buy a couple of things off the dollar menu.”
Thanks to the Food Bank’s Mobile Food Pantry in Mexia, Texas, her whole family can eat without sacrificing any meals. More importantly, Heather can eat fresh produce to keep her baby healthy.
The distribution the day this photo was taken was a special one. Heather couldn’t help but tear up when she learned she’d be getting a little more produce thanks to H-E-B, who was making an additional fresh produce donation to mark local hero and NFL star Kelvin Beachum Jr.’s generous $50,000 gift to help families in McLennan, Limestone and Freestone Counties.
Heather left the distribution with a huge smile on her face and a basket full of meat, cereal, beans, rice, juice, canned goods, and her favorite – fresh produce.
“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would do without wonderful things like this. After finding out this week that my food stamps have been cut, I’m so grateful,” Heather said.
