Bill sits in the driver's seat of his car with the window down, looking toward the camera. He wears glasses and a camouflage hoodie, with sunlight illuminating his face as the car's interior and a blurred parking lot are visible in the background.

Bill can put food on the table for his family with the help he receives from HOPE Coalition, a Harvesters agency partner in Holden, Mo.

“It’s very important,” he said. “There are people out there who don’t have anything. If it weren’t for this, we wouldn’t be eating.”

Bill relies on Social Security and SNAP to provide necessities for his two daughters — a 19-year-old who’s talking about going to college in Warrensburg, Mo., and a 12-year-old who, as he said with a smile, “likes cell phones and stuff like that.”

“I’m disabled,” he said. “When SNAP gets affected, I’ve got to use money that I would be using for gas for my car just to buy food for my girls. So, it makes it really hard.”

Bill is frequently faced with tough choices.

“If I buy food, then I can’t buy gas,” he said. “It’s not an easy choice to make — especially when you’ve got kids.”

Rising costs have made it a struggle to make ends meet.

“Our health premiums and Medicare went way up,” Bill said. “After insurance comes out, I get about $900 a month. My premium went from a $100-and-something to over $200. (Politicians) talk about giving you a 2% increase, but then Medicare goes up 30%. It’ll never keep up.”

Bill is frustrated by ongoing government budget cuts that have left many families like his struggling to make ends meet.

“Right now, I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “They’re supposed to be there for the American people—and right now, they’re not. I wish they could just get along.”