NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Imagine having enough food for only two or three days but having to make it last for the rest of the month.

That’s what a Norfolk woman faces after she said she was the victim of a scammer swiping money from her Electronic Benefits Transfer card.

The food in her freezer — a few frozen chicken parts and a small amount of frozen fruit — is what she bought last month before thieves stole hundreds of dollars from her EBT card.

It was at E. Palmer’s Supermarket in the Berkley section of Norfolk where a mother of four, like many SNAP customers do, went to shop. They get a 50% discount when they buy fresh produce.

On this day, however, the woman got to the counter and was told there was no money in the card.

“She was very distraught,” a store employee said. “She actually came to tears.”

In Virginia and across the nation funds are electronically stolen before clients have a chance to use their cards at the beginning of the month.

10 On Your Side and Del. Bonita Anthony have heard from dozens of SNAP clients whose funds have been stolen electronically.

“What we’re finding out is that this is not just a Hampton Roads problem, it’s not just a Norfolk problem, it’s across the Commonwealth, and actually it’s across the United States,” Anthony said, “where people’s cards are not protected, even though they do have mechanisms, they have an app and they’ve been telling people to lock their their card feature when they’re when it’s not in use. However, that doesn’t stop folks from skimming or defrauding their benefits out of their card.”

Anthony, who represents Norfolk residents, said not one state in the country uses EBT cards with security chips, and President Biden-era backup funding is gone. She’s trying to solve what she calls a crisis situation for thousands of families.

This EBT client, who did not want to be identified, said she recently changed her personal identification number.

“And now, March 1, my stamps are gone,” she said.

And so is her sense of food security.

In her sparsely-filled refrigerator, there’s a little yogurt from which she makes sandwiches, and she also has a few pieces of frozen chicken, frozen fruit, a few cans of pasta and an open box of cereal.