NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Thousands of Tennessee families are hungry because of a new system with SNAP benefits or food stamps. State leaders said it may be another two months before everyone gets their money.
For almost three months, Amber Tucker did not have enough money to put food on her family’s table.
“Some nights, of course, I would just tell my fiancé and my daughter to eat and not really worry about myself because that’s what I feel like is important, but we shouldn’t have to do that,” Tucker, a SNAP benefits recipient, said.
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Tucker told WATE’s sister station, WKRN, she would call the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) and sit on hold for three hours, only to hear they were overwhelmed with applicants.
“You wait on the phone all that time for them to tell you nothing,” Tucker said. “So, of course, the process is wait on hold for another three hours, and, you know, how can they expect us to work and things like that, but yet we have to literally sit on the phone and wait three, four hours…to get through to y’all? And we can’t work if we’re having to do that, but I mean, how are we going to feed our families if we don’t have the extra money to buy food?”