One morning in early November, Ana Harris rifled through an almost-empty box of food inside the communal kitchen at
the Ronald McDonald House kitchen in Denver. The charity provides families with children undergoing hospital treatment a free place to say. Harris’ son Erik was being treated for leukemia.
She pulled out an almost-empty bag of shredded cheese, a few tortillas, and some salsa and onions salvaged from a Mexican restaurant.
“Not really anything to make a meal,” she said.
Less than a week before, the federal food assistance program known as SNAP was suspended.
Harris had sensed the cutoff was coming — ever since the government shutdown started on Oct. 1. But, with local food banks like LIFT-UP near her home in Silt, as well as her emergency stockpile of food, Harris figured she could survive without the benefits for a while.
A few weeks later, everything changed.
Erik, her 16-year-old, hadn’t been feeling well. He was sleeping all the time, losing weight. Family members noticed that his skin was turning yellow.
Harris took him to the doctor, who prescribed further testing at the hospital in Grand Junction. She got the call with Erik’s diagnosis in the middle of the night.
In the morning, Harris could barely remember the call. Maybe, she hoped, it was just a dream.
“I asked my oldest,” she said, “‘Did I have a nightmare, or was the call real?’”
I first met Harris back in August, at the mobile food pantry in Silt run by LIFT-UP. She’s a single mom to five, a domestic violence survivor, and has a knack for resourcefulness.
To save money, she learned how to work on her car. She can change an alternator and the starter, as well as the brakes, calipers and rotors.
She also uses the LIFT-UP pantry to supplement her food stamps, which are never enough to feed four hungry teenaged boys.
Harris’ sole income comes through Medicaid as a caretaker to her youngest child, Arthur, 12. He has severe disabilities and requires constant supervision, leaving Harris unable to work outside the home.
About 6,000 people in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys depend on food assistance. More than half are children. Many others are like Harris, single mothers, who are more likely to live in poverty.
Even before the suspension of SNAP, food insecurity in the region had been increasing, said Christina Gair, the executive director of the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance, due to Colorado’s rising cost of living and the end of pandemic-era benefits.
When I spoke to Gair at the end of October, she called the imminent SNAP cutoff a, “major crisis, in the sense that people could go hungry.”
When Harris arrived in Denver with Erik and Arthur, she had $100 left in food stamps.
After Erik’s first round of treatment, he was craving pork chops. Harris used the money to buy the meat and make a big pot of soup.
Lately, Erik said he’d been craving pretzels and tangerines — not ideal with the steroid he takes, which raises his blood sugar. “I gotta focus on protein,” he said.
On Nov. 6 — five days after SNAP payments ended, Harris had just a dollar left in her account.
“The impotence you feel as a single parent with a sick child and another one that's special needs and two more at home,” she said. “I honestly sometimes end up in tears in the parking lot.”
Though Denver has food pantries, Harris can’t get to them easily.
Ronald McDonald House rules prevent her from leaving Erik in the building alone, and he is too sick to go with her.
The chemo makes him tired and with his weakened immune system, just catching a cold could put him in critical condition.
When I visited, they’d been in Denver since Oct. 17. Erik had already undergone multiple treatments, including bone marrow aspirations and lumbar punches. Meanwhile, Harris took care of Arthur and tried to figure out ways to make their remaining food last longer. Without the SNAP payments, her financial situation was getting more and more precarious.
She hadn’t paid her bills, her mortgage, or her car payment.
It wasn’t the first time Harris has found herself in those circumstances.
When she gave birth to Erik and his twin sister prematurely, Harris stayed in the same Ronald McDonald house while they were in the NICU. Back then, she didn’t have food stamps, or any money.
“I was by myself pumping my milk,” she said. To eat, she’d buy a can of corn and then get free packets of Parmesan cheese and a mayonnaise from the hospital cafeteria and make her own version of Mexican street corn.
In the years since, Harris tried to make it so that would never happen again. She bought a dehydrator and dehydrated fresh fruits and vegetables. She stockpiled powdered milk and canned food, and she started a herb garden filled with basil, rosemary, and mint.
Having some food security meant Harris had the time and energy to focus on other areas of her life. Caring for Arthur, getting an internet connection so her boys could attend online school during the pandemic, and cooking. She could make the Mexican beef stew her boys devour: tender steak, fresh green beans, potatoes, rice, and refried beans.
“It all goes into a bowl with cheese,” she said. “Erik loves that. He'll eat the whole pot.”
For Ana, Erik’s cancer diagnosis on top of losing her SNAP benefits had eroded that little bit of stability she’d created for herself and her boys.
With the federal government reopened, Colorado’s Department of Human Services announced on Nov. 12 that SNAP recipients will receive their full November benefits soon. But two days later, Harris was still waiting for her payment to come through.
Meanwhile, Erik was back in the hospital. He needed surgery to remove a broken port catheter.
“Just when I get settled, something else happens,” she said.
To Ana, a lot of her life has felt that way.
“I’ve lost everything so many times,” she said. “But I bounced back.”
The Mountain Coalition for Food and Nutrition Security, organized by the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance, has created a “call to action” chart outlining ways to help individuals and families struggling with food insecurities. Opportunities include monetary donations and volunteering for hunger relief organizations, as well as food drives throughout the tri-county region.
