On Halloween evening as I watched the children in the middle-class neighborhood where I live head home in the early darkness carrying bags stuffed with candy, I could not stop thinking about the crisis going on with SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on which 42 million Americans, 12% of the country, depend .

My thoughts were on the children who occupy two such different Americas. Growing up in suburban Cleveland Heights, I was once one of those kids with a stuffed shopping bag — usually a big one from Heinen’s. I never worried about getting too much candy.

When I got home, the candy was put in a ceramic mixing bowl that was kept in the refrigerator so that the candy I could eat on any single day was limited. If I wanted to dip into my Halloween candy at dinner time, t

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