When COVID hit in 2020, Lacey was working in the medical field and expecting her third child. Not wanting to endanger her baby by continuing to work in the hospital setting, Lacey gave up her role as a CNA.
The family had to rely on her husband’s full-time income at the Port of Providence, plus the enhanced SNAP benefits they received throughout the pandemic.
Now, her youngest child is three and Lacey continues to stay at home with her kids because the cost of daycare far outpaces what she would make going to work. “We don’t qualify for SNAP anymore,” Lacey shares.
Lacey and her husband find themselves in a position faced by many Rhode Island families – they have a steady income, but it’s not enough to offset the increasingly high costs of rent, food, utilities and childcare. That’s why the family is so grateful for your generosity that allows them to turn to the pantry at WestBay Community Action Program in Warwick for extra help with food.
“Inflation has been hard,” Lacey says. “The prices of everything are absolutely insane. But the pantry provides good, nutritious food and it helps with the grocery bills – one less thing to worry about.”
