MESA, AZ — Hundreds of thousands of residents in the Phoenix area face food insecurity, and some say getting help is harder than it should be because they lack internet access, a Mesa nonprofit says.
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Managers at Paz de Cristo Community Center say more than 530,000 people in Maricopa County are experiencing food insecurity, and many are not connected to the internet, which the center calls the most efficient way to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Volunteers at Paz de Cristo sit down with about 120 people a month to help them enroll in SNAP. The center prefers the online portal because the paper application is nearly 40 pages long, a form that can be especially difficult for senior citizens to complete, leaders said.
“In our area, there are about 9,000 households that don’t have access to the internet,” said Jackie Shelley, Paz de Cristo’s general manager. “How we reach out to them to tell them we can be a benefit — we can’t do that the way normal people who are dialed in can.”
Nonprofit leaders say the need remains high even after SNAP benefits, commonly called food stamps, were reduced following congressional budget cuts last July.
Jonny Dekker, whose family founded American Discount Foods in Mesa, said the grocery store has served a significant number of SNAP customers and has heard from people who say the assistance made a real difference.
“We’ve had customers who’ve reached out to us on a fairly regular basis and say your store really helped us in a hard season,” Dekker said. “It’s our desire that each person who’s on SNAP gets to a point where they’re no longer in need.”
Paz de Cristo leaders said the organization cannot rely on typical advertising methods, such as television or social media, because many of the people who need help cannot access those platforms.
Paz de Cristo’s office is 424 W. Broadway Road in Mesa. The community center’s phone is (480) 464-2370.
If you’d rather apply for SNAP benefits without assistance from that nonprofit, follow this link to the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s website.
RELATED: Union members say cuts to SNAP, Medicaid are hurting retirees. Watch in the video player below.
