With food-assistance cuts, businesses and farms go to work

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Under cloudy skies on Monday afternoon, Meg Athearn of Morning Glory Farm laid out a last-minute free farmer’s market on a folding table outside the Agricultural Hall. As she processed a basket of onions on the porch, cars pulled around the circular driveway to pick up some of the fresh produce. 

Athearn marketed the event as free for anyone looking for food, including but not limited to the many Islanders enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. 

“It just seemed like a no-brainer to do this when I saw that SNAP funds were freezing,” Athearn said as she snipped the white onions. “It’s a time of year when we have some excess, and I’m happy to share.”

The Morning Glory free market — that saw some 75 people show up to get produce — is just one Island business that has done what it can to help Islanders during the federal shutdown. Restaurants such as S&S Kitchenette and Sharky’s have offered plates of free food, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore is raising money through cookbook sales, and the Island Food Pantry has prepared for an uptick in service. 

Cuts to the federal food assistance program have left many locals reeling — more than 1,000 residents participate, according to data from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. 

While it was reported that SNAP would be frozen completely by Nov. 1, a federal judge demanded it continue through the government shutdown. But there has been significant uncertainty around the program as the Trump administration pushed back against the order, with the president denying any payments as of Friday. The federal stalemate over the funds has continued, and earlier this week, Island residents that rely on SNAP had not received funding since the Nov. 1 freeze.

“I haven’t gotten any yet that I know of,” one woman at the Ag Hall said on Monday as she loaded produce into a paper bag. She said she receives monthly funds from SNAP, and from HIP (Massachusetts Healthy Initiatives Program), a subset of SNAP that adds funds to EBT cards if the recipient buys fruits and vegetables from participating farms. 

She cited cuts to fuel assistance programs as well — namely the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps qualifying households cover their electric bills. “You take away food, and you take away heat … Everything is just going,” she said. Then she gestured to the table of food before them. “[This] makes you feel like your community is there for you.”

Brian Raiche, another individual who has felt the effects of the federal cuts to SNAP, said he’s very reliant on the program. He is one of many unhoused Islanders who works, but said he has been affected by the lack of housing supply on the Vineyard. Raiche has a dog, affectionately named Puppy, and he’s had trouble finding accommodation that is both affordable and allows pets. 

“People don’t know there’s a ton of homeless people on this Island,” Raiche said while feeding his dog in Vineyard Haven near the Post Office.

“It’s all about housing. If there was another one of those there,” he pointed to a housing complex across the street from Cumberland Farms, “then I could let my dog in. ’Cause that’s mainly my problem. He’s my seeing-eye dog.”

Raiche estimated that he usually receives $288 a month from SNAP. But this month, no funds have come in. Since he’s often in transit, and has to carry most of his belongings with him, the supplemental money allows him to purchase small amounts of food as he goes, which is often more expensive than buying ingredients to cook in a kitchen. His two backpacks, he said, can hold only so much, let alone perishables. 

“This is the way it is,” Raiche said. 

He cleans yards for a living, landscaping properties. “I need more work and a safe place for me and Puppy … I was getting assistance for the past year since I went blind [in one eye]. I just renewed it for another year to get on my food stamps, and then according to the president, he canceled [it] … So now I’m out $75 a week in food.”

As Islanders grapple with the reality of these cuts to essential funding, business owners continue to plan events. Morning Glory Farm will hold another free Farmer’s Market on Nov. 17, and Athearn said she hopes more farms join next time. 

The event was under the wire for the first run, but Athearn was surprised to see another farm stop by, even with just a few hours of notice. Julie Scott, executive director of Slough Farm, brought a large Igloo cooler full of meat to contribute to Monday’s event. The influx of more food items was well received. 

“Community looking after community, it’s wonderful,” another Islander, who said she’s enrolled in SNAP, called out as she picked up some of the produce and local meats.