Tara is a holistic nutrition consultant and a trained chef from Montpelier, who also offers postpartum support to mothers in Vermont. She’s a single mom, has her own business, and volunteers in her community serving food to unhoused neighbors. And she has faced food insecurity over the last 20 years. She has shared her experience with us to help build awareness of food insecurity.
Tara is familiar with trying to access the federally funded, state-administered program called SNAP (known in Vermont as 3SquaresVT, sometimes called “food stamps”) that provides money for income-eligible people to purchase groceries—and how challenging it can be, especially during moments of crisis.
“I feel like I’m a very well-spoken, highly educated individual. I’ve been a mother for 21 years, and I didn’t know how to begin. I didn’t. I didn’t. It just felt completely overwhelming to me,” she says.
Today, Tara has 3SquaresVT benefits for her and her son, and she wants to share her experience so that other people in Vermont who could use food help, know help is there.
Vermont Foodbank, with help from you, has a team of dedicated staff who work statewide to offer individual assistance for the 3SquaresVT application process—including helping to determine if individuals qualify, as well as application and follow-up support. Tara was able to access personal assistance from this team, and weeks later was receiving monthly food budget support through 3SquaresVT.
For Tara, the one-on-one assistance was a game-changer. She had been parenting on her own while working and recovering from hardships for the past few years. She explains, “And so you take all that, and you’re already quiet. You’re already succumbed. You’re already completely invisible in some ways… I don’t even know where she came from. But somebody, somehow, I connected with Sarah [at Vermont Foodbank].
“To have a real live person with a real-life phone number who actually called me, who emailed me…that made all the difference. And that is the only reason I was fine. I’m finally on food stamps after being a single mother three times and not being able to figure out the system,” she shares.
Your support, for programs like the 3SquaresVT outreach team, has helped countless mothers, families, and individuals gain access to important food access resources and dignified food budget support.
Tara wants people to know they are not alone in facing tough choices with household budgets, and that help is there.
“The food, you know I would say that food was the first to go for me…there’s electricity, there’s gas. There’s my car. There’s car insurance. There’s the rent, the food. I was really trying to get myself under $50 a week [for food]. I actually stopped taking [my son] grocery shopping with me…because I couldn’t afford for him to make the kind of choices that he wanted. And, I didn’t want to keep saying no. And so, I would go by myself.”
Tara says that 3SquaresVT is helping her to build a secure home for herself and her child. She describes getting the internet set up and building business opportunities. She also shares the day-to-day impact on her and her son.
“[After getting 3SquaresVT I was able to make] brown rice with chicken legs and herbs and onions. Oh, my gosh! And then my son made an apple crisp,” she says. “And being able to grocery shop with him again after a year and a half of not letting him come with me. It’s like, Oh, that’s remarkable.”
Tara explains why it’s important to her to share her experience, “If my voice, if my words, helps any woman, mother especially, navigate that system…What helped was having my hand held and showing me how to do things.”
“I don’t feel ashamed. I feel so proud of myself.”
If you’re inspired to share your own story, please get in touch.
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