For Betty, a Dorchester mother raising her young son on a fixed income, help from nonprofits and community organizations has become essential to keeping food on the table.
By the time she arrived late morning, the shelves inside the Dorchester Community Fridge were nearly empty.
“Oh my goodness, they did get in here,” Betty said as she looked through the remaining food.
While options were limited, she managed to find a loaf of bread she could use for meals at home. Despite the sparse selection, Betty stayed positive. She said the community fridge is easier to access than other traditional food pantries she has turned to before.
“The line was around the block, and you had to do so much,” she said of past experiences seeking food assistance. “It was not this easy.”
Betty relies on several nonprofits, including Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), after fleeing domestic violence.
“With my income being fixed, I have no choice but to seek out help,” she said.
She said her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were dramatically reduced.
“I used to get nearly $400, and then it got cut down to $24,” Betty said. With help from Greater Boston Legal Services, she was able to get the amount increased to $94 a month for her household of two.
Still, she says the benefits are not enough.
“Realistically, it just doesn’t,” she said when asked how she makes it work. “A lot of the times I just don’t really eat too much at all, but my kid does, and that’s what matters.”
Betty also lives with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which she says affects her ability to work. But despite the challenges, she remains determined.
“I don’t let it win,” she said. “If anything else, I’m a fighter.”
Like many families facing financial hardship, Betty says she often relies on friends and community support to bridge the gap.
“I often have to ask my friends for help because I’m not getting child support,” she said.
Over time, she said she has built a network of women who help one another when resources run short.
“They have that saying, ‘It takes a village’ for a reason,” Betty said. “We all talk to each other. I’m like, ‘Okay, I have this, I have this, I have this. What do you have?’ We all just figure this out together.”
For Betty, that support system has been critical as she navigates food insecurity and rising costs while caring for her son.
“If you keep a sunny disposition and a positive disposition, nothing is impossible,” she said.
NBC10 Boston connected with Betty through ABCD, a nonprofit that helps people across Greater Boston access food assistance, housing support, utility assistance, job training and other resources.
ABCD CEO Sharon Scott-Chandler said the organization is seeing growing demand as families contend with rising costs for basic necessities.
“Food is an area that has increased exponentially,” Scott-Chandler said. “I think it’s not even one single thing. It’s everything at once.”
She said many families are being forced to make difficult decisions between essentials, including food, medication, housing and heating costs.
“I think what gives me hope and optimism is really that our communities are resilient. We’ve seen it over and over again. And we see people striving to do better. We see people working, trying to continue not only to manage those immediate needs in crisis, but also think about what might be in the future as opportunity and that economic mobility,” Scott-Chandler said.
ABCD helps roughly 100,000 people each year and encourages anyone struggling to make ends meet to reach out for assistance.
“We want people to know that help is available for everyone and that they really should not struggle alone,” Scott-Chandler said.