'How do they expect us to live?': SNAP food aid cuts hit NH residents

PORTSMOUTH — When times get tough, Lauri Cadieux returns to her longtime mantra: “Believe and breathe.”

The 60-year-old resident of the downtown Margeson Apartments is one of millions of Americans facing reductions in federal monthly food benefits. The hits came after President Donald Trump signed what he calls “One Big Beautiful Bill,” into law on the Fourth of July.

Cadieux, a Type II diabetic, is a 14-year resident of the Margeson Apartments, a Portsmouth Housing Authority property. She said she previously worked as a special nutritional health aide and a nurse’s aide. In recent months, she said her SNAP benefits dropped from $292 per month — the government's current maximum monthly allotment for a one-person household — to $60 a month, then decreased to nothing after she reported r