Currently, over 42 million Americans rely on benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
NEED TO KNOW
- A Riverside couple is turning their Halloween driveway into a pop-up food pantry, providing 30 grocery bags for families
- After a TikTok post, strangers’ donations on Venmo helped fund the effort
- Their project is now inspiring others to give back
When Martina Meyer-Toribio took a trip to her local Costco to stock up on Halloween candy, she immediately noticed the price jump — the same bags were nearly $4 more than last year, and smaller, too. She called her wife, Jacinda, to talk it over.
Together, they decided to scale back, picking up seven bags of candy instead of their usual 10 or 12, and filling the rest of their cart with instant noodles and potato chips — a fun alternative for the groups of teens who usually show up at their door each year.
But later that evening, after purchasing the treats, another thought struck them: food stamps were set to expire the day after Halloween…