For the last year, 500 working families in Montgomery County, Maryland, who didn’t qualify for federal food assistance, but were “on the cusp of hunger,” got needed help from MC Groceries.
Now that number is expanding to 700 families, according to Heather Bruskin, the director of the Montgomery County Office of Food Systems Resilience.
“These are working families that make too much to be eligible for federal benefit programs like SNAP or WIC, but they don’t make enough to cover their basic cost of living,” said Bruskin, referring to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
Bruskin explained how the recently expanded program works.
“MC Groceries gives qualifying families $100 per child per month to shop on the Instacart platform,” Bruskin said.
She said Instacart, which offers food delivery, is part of the approach to food access.
“A lot of these lower income families have transportation challenges,” Bruskin said. “They’re shopping by getting rides from friends, or walking or taking public transportation to the grocery store.”
Data from the program tracks how the money is spent, according to Bruskin.
“The top two purchased items through MC Groceries were fresh fruits and fresh vegetables,” she said.
Following closely behind, she said, were meat and dairy items.
That’s exactly how Mwanamisi — an MC Groceries participant who spoke to WTOP on the condition that her first name only would be used — spends the extra food dollars. Avocados and fresh fruits such as strawberries were added to her grocery cart. Something she said her three young children noticed right away.
Her husband worked in the public health sector — hit by layoffs in the past year — and Mwanamisi said he’s been unable to find work since losing his job in February. That meant moving to cut all unnecessary expenses, and skipping higher priced groceries, often substituting legumes as a protein source rather than meat.
Thanks to the supplement for food expenses, Mwanamisi said she can occasionally add the traditional — and favorite — protein source to family meals: goat meat.
“Which I love and which my kids love as well,” Mwanamisi said.
With the cushion of the MC Groceries money, Mwanamisi said, there’s less stress around providing nutritious meals.
“Like before, if you leave even a tiny bit of milk in your cup, I would be on your case,” she said.
With a slight smile in her voice, she said, “Now I am finding that I am shouting less.”
She said she appreciates being able to add more items that are “healthy and good for growing kids.”
“We are very so grateful for MC Groceries,” Mwanamisi said.
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