Kenny Robinson Sr., moves quickly Monday through the one-room food pantry inside Chosen Bethel Family Ministries in Englewood on the South Side.He drops bags of spaghetti into more than a dozen cardboard boxes that will be distributed to area senior citizens to help feed them for about 10 days. On another table, Robinson and four other volunteers are also setting up for the afternoon pantry. He hauls boxes of pasta and canned beans from a neatly organized closet that he regularly stocks and volunteers have nicknamed “Kenny’s closet.”Robinson, 61, of Englewood, started volunteering at the pantry about two years ago after he was standing in line to get food and noticed the church needed more help. The pantry supplements the $158 in monthly benefits he receives from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.But like thousands of others in Illinois and across the country, Robinson is at risk of losing those benefits soon because of expanded work rules that are part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill approved by Congress last summer.As of Feb. 1, people up to age 64 will have to work or volunteer at least 80 hours per month to remain eligible for food assistance. The work rules also expanded to include individuals who are homeless, veterans and parents of teens 14 and older.For years, Robinson has had trouble finding steady employment because of the stigma that surrounds his past criminal conviction. He’s been trying to have it expunged.“I’m willing to work but ……
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