Childhood Hunger
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Summary:
Plant closings, mass layoffs and cut hours are causing millions of Americans to turn to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, to feed their families.
June 1
Record numbers of people apply for food stamps
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)
Shaheen Samavati
Tonia Burnett of Maple Heights often worked 60-hour weeks as a direct-care assistant to provide for herself and her three young children.
But since the economy has gone sour, Burnett, who makes $9 an hour, could no longer get overtime at the group home where she works. Over the past few months the 40-year-old single mom has turned to food stamps and other government benefits to get by.
Plant closings, mass layoffs and cut hours are causing millions of Americans like Burnett to turn to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, to feed their families. As of February, 32.6 million people nationwide received the benefit, the highest number in the history of the program. It also was a 17 percent increase from the same month last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Cuyahoga County, more than 201,777 people — or one in seven —received food stamps in February, an 8 percent increase from February 2008. Across the state, 16 percent more people received food stamps, totaling 1.3 million people.
Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, said, “Participation has just skyrocketed.” She attributed the rise to the increased number of people being laid off or seeing their hours reduced at work.
Ellen Vollinger, legal director at the Food Research Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., said some of the uptick also could reflect states doing a better job of getting the word out to people about their eligibility.
She pointed to the Ohio Benefits Bank, a free, Web-based program that began in late 2007 to help people apply for an array of public benefits, including food stamps, home energy assistance, child-care subsidies and medical aid. Hamler-Fugitt’s organization, an association of 12 food banks across the state, helped implement the initiative.
It can be accessed at obb.- ohio.gov or through counselors at hundreds of social-service agency sites across Ohio.
“Outreach as a strategy is becoming much more common,” Vollinger said - although she added that it’s clear the increase in food stamp use reflects decreased income and, therefore, increased eligibility.
Joe Gauntner, director of Cuyahoga County Employment & Family Services, said that when unemployment rises, food stamp applications soon follow. Ohio’s unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in March, up from 6.1 percent during the same month last year.
“A lot of our growth has been in our offices that serve suburban areas,” Gauntner said. “We’re seeing many families that have never come to us before.”
As more people apply for food stamps, there is also more now to apply for.
The federal economic stimulus package that passed in February increased maximum food stamp benefits by 13.6 percent in April. Of the $19.3 billion that was allotted to fund the increase through 2013, $756 million is going to people in Ohio.
“Many economists have said [increasing food stamp benefits] is one of the most effective means of stimulus because people on food stamps spend the money very quickly,” said Stacy Dean, director of food assistance policy at the Center for Budget Policy Priorities, a research organization in Washington, D.C., focused on budget policy and poverty issues.
USDA research has estimated that every $1 in food stamps disbursed generates $1.84 in economic activity.
Not only does increasing food stamp benefits pump money into grocery stores, food companies and farms, but it can also free up other money that families can then spend to pay their bills or buy other products, Dean said.
With the increase, for example, a family of four receiving the maximum benefit - meaning they have no net income - would get $668 a month in food. Before the increase, they would have received $588 worth.
Most families receive less than that. Burnett, for example, said her family receives $138 in food stamps per month.
Until recently, Burnett’s employer experienced a high turnover of workers, and she frequently could take over open shifts. But since jobs have become scarcer, “the positions don’t stay open long,” she said.
She spends most of her income on rent and utilities. So, when her food stamps are not enough, Burnett will go to the Bridge of Hope food pantry at City Church in Cleveland, where she also volunteers. There she can pick up canned goods and house supplies.
As the economy has worsened, food pantries across the state are seeing more traffic, Hamler-Fugitt said.
The number of people served at Ohio food pantries increased 29 percent in March compared with the same month last year, she said.
“Each week we get at least three or four new people who have lost their jobs,” said Billie Hill, who runs Bridge of Hope. It is one of many local agencies that receive food through Cleveland Foodbank.
Hamler-Fugitt said she uses news of the stimulus increase as a way to persuade more people to apply for food stamps. Some don’t want to go through the hassle of applying only to risk being shot down. Others think that if they go on food stamps, the money won’t be there for someone else.
But Hamler-Fugitt pointed out that the number of qualified people who can participate in the program is unlimited.
“For many families, it’s a very hard thing to come and ask for help,” said Cuyahoga County’s Gauntner. But one should think of it in the same terms as unemployment insurance, he said.
“If someone uses this for six months while they’re getting back to work, that’s great,” he said.
Hamler-Fugitt pointed out that the program is completely federally funded, meaning there’s no cost to the local or state government.
“It is critically important for people in communities that are struggling economically to help bring these dollars to their local communities,” she said.
