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An Elizabeth resident picks up a few loaves of bread from the St. Joseph Social Service Center food pantry. Monday, the effect of the food stamp cutbacks became clearer in food kitchens and food pantries at social services offices, at markets and on street corners.

(Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger)

The lines are growing deeper across New Jersey at soup kitchens, some volunteers say, in the wake of recent cuts to the federal food stamp program.

At grocery stores, such as the C-Town supermarket in Newark, anxious words are filling the air: The cuts that came down Friday — the result of a rollback to increased benefits under President Obama’s 2008 economic stimulus bill — are what many customers are talking about, a cashier says.

On Monday, the effect of those cutbacks — targeting some 47.6 million Americans — began to become clearer … in food kitchens and pantries, at social services offices, inside markets, on street corners.

On Capitol Hill in Washington, House Republicans — upset that growing numbers of Americans are relying on food stamps — say they favor a second round of even deeper cuts to the country’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as part of a revised farm bill.

In New Jersey, roughly 10 percent of families who rely on food stamps find their benefits sliced to pre-recession levels, say experts. And some of them are beginning to worry about feeding their children, they say.

Standing outside the Middlesex County Board of Social Services in New Brunswick Monday, Christina Rosario, 32, explained that her husband and their two children recently became homeless. And so they live out of their van.

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Her husband, a military veteran, Rosario said, was hurt at work four years ago. And last month she was laid off from her job with a collections agency.

The couple gets $800 a month in disability, she said, but it just wasn’t enough money to pay their rent.

And now, she said with angst in her voice, the reduction in the federal food stamp money means her family — including her 11- and 1½-year-olds — will get about $200 less for food.

“Now, it’s $320 a month. It’s terrible,” Rosario said.

Under Friday’s $5 billion slash to the federal SNAP program, a family of four was expected to lose about $36 a month on average. That amount will vary according to a family’s income and other factors.

Experts report that nearly half the current recipients of food stamps are children, and another 20 percent are elderly or disabled. In New Jersey, that comes to roughly 559,000 people, according to Census figures.

Also according to Census numbers, 16,000 people getting food stamps in New Jersey are veterans.

Families facing the benefit cut are expected to turn to local food banks for greater assistance, and officials said Monday they were concerned about being able to meet that increased demand.

“So certainly if people have even less resources, they’re gonna be looking for assistance from us even more,” said Frank Hasner, executive director of the Franklin Township Food Bank. “In the big picture, we’re absolutely concerned.”

At Elijah’s Promise in New Brunswick Monday — one of Middlesex County’s largest soup kitchens — John Dwyer said he has seen a jump in the number of people coming in to eat.

“There’s definitely an increase,” said the 60-year-old volunteer from South River, who is also a food stamps recipient.

His own food stamps were cut by $11 a month, he said, but “I’m going to take it in stride.”

“I just have to tighten my belt,” he said. “My hobby is playing with circulars. I check out what’s on sale and only buy those items. That, along with the meals I have here (the soup kitchen) — there’s my food.”

At Newark’s food stamps office, Herbert Scott clutched his cane and shivered in the cold morning air.

He said he is disabled and he relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to cover grocery expenses. For him, he said, any cutback makes a real difference.

He received $200 a month before Friday’s reduction; now it’s $189.

“It doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but at the end of the day, you feel it,” said Scott. “You eat three meals a day for the first half of the month but after that, it’s a crunch. You start skipping meals and going to food pantries.” He also said he’d like to eat healthier but processed food is less expensive than fresh produce and meat.

“You adapt,” Scott went on. “It’s Ramen noodles and chicken franks and canned pasta.”

Standing outside the St. Joseph Social Service Center in Elizabeth yesterday, Sarah Ferretti explained that she receives no support from her children’s father, and her family — including kids ages 15, 11 and 9 — is staying with a friend.

She said she relied heavily on the $600 monthly allotment she had been receiving in food stamps. Now, her family will scrape by with $56 less.

“Eating fresh vegetables... that’s definitely not going to happen. We eat canned,” she said at the pantry, where she helps as a volunteer to get additional groceries. And preparing Thanksgiving dinner will be a struggle. “That’s an eating holiday. … The holidays are tough,” said Ferretti, who hopes to receive a donated turkey for Thanksgiving.

Staff writers Sue Epstein, Lisa Rose, Tom Haydon and Bill Wichert contributed to this report.

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