Feeding a family of five on food stamps

The Bryan family of Baltimore is a tight-knit clan. Parents Julie and Aaron met as teenagers, and haven't spent a night apart in 22 years. "Family first" is their motto and the desire to provide for their children – son Zachary and twins Tabby and Gabby – is the bedrock of their lives.

The Bryans are also among the more than 47 million Americans who use food stamps, now known as SNAP or the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program. The number of SNAP recipients increased 70 percent between fiscal years 2007 and 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and is now at the highest level it's ever been.

The safety net program took a heavy cut Nov. 1, as a temporary boost to the benefit, passed with the 2009 economic stimulus, ran out. The Bryans now receive $750 a month, $50 less than before. That averages out to $8 per meal for all five of them. On a given day, Julie and Aaron don’t know exactly how they are going to feed their children.

"It's hard. It's heartbreaking, and it's frustrating at a point, because I don't want my kids to ever be hungry and it's really hard,” Julie told America Tonight. "I try not to cry in front of them. But then they'll come to me and the refrigerator or the pantry's empty and they'll say, ‘Well, what are we going to eat?’"

More than one in seven American households experiences "food insecurity," according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This means at some point in the last year, they couldn't afford a balanced meal, or they weren't sure where their next meal was coming from.

The Bryan children don't know about the food stamps they've lived on since June. And their parents don't want them to. They just know it as the “food card.” 

Not too long ago, the Bryans were a middle-class family. Aaron earned $60,000 a year, and they had enough money to redo the recreation room, renovate the kitchen and take vacations. "In 2007, I could have sat here and told you, I'll probably retire at 55. That's how well we were doing," said Aaron.

But six years ago, the Bryans' fortunes collapsed, along with the construction industry. Aaron is a construction project manager, and in the last year he's had just one four-month job. Construction was the hardest-hit industry in the recession. And while unemployment in construction has dropped to 9 percent from a high of 25 percent in 2010, much of that is due to one million workers leaving the sector, reported CNN.  

"I can show you, I send out 30 to 40 resumes a month to beat the odds," Aaron said.

Aaron's unemployment insurance has expired, and these days, he looks for whatever $100-a-day side job he can get. Some of the jobs that are advertised as full time in Maryland, Julie says, end up being part time or far away. And she doesn't want to uproot the whole family, on the chance that Aaron gets laid off again.

Those side jobs don't add up to enough to even pay the mortgage, let alone the host of other bills. So although it was devastasting for them, the Byrans felt they had no choice but to apply for food stamps.

"My mother was a single parent of seven kids. I was on food stamps until I was 18 years old," Aaron said. "I always said there was no way in this world I'm going to be on welfare.”

“I work. I am not lazy, I work every day," he added. "And to apply for food stamps was a new low for me." 

Julie's main job now is bartering with bill collectors for time. "As for gas and electric, honest to God it scares the death out of me, because I don't know what we're going to do,” she said. “How are we going to come up with almost $800 for a gas and electric bill?"