Local News: More in Need of Food Stamps in Waco

30 Percent More McLennan County Residents Getting Food Stamps
By Cindy V. Culp (Tribune-Herald Staff Writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

The number of McLennan County residents receiving food stamps is nearly 30 percent higher than it was this time last year — an increase that coincides with record usage nationwide.

The country broke the 30 million mark for food-stamp recipients in September, with 31.6 million people receiving benefits. Before that, the record was 29.85 million people, set in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Part of the current spike can be attributed to devastation from Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav, especially in Texas. But the bigger cause of the high numbers is the troubled economy, experts say.

Speegleville resident Robert Ashcraft said he’s living proof of that. The single father had a job at the local Pilgrim’s Pride plant until the end of October. But he was laid off, he said, when the company hit rocky financial territory, eventually declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Ashcraft, 48, has been unsuccessfully searching for a job ever since. That’s why he recently was at the Waco office that administers food stamps, looking for assistance for himself and his four children.

“I’m doing an emergency application,” Ashcraft said. “We need help.”

Nationwide, 10 percent of people overall and 20 percent of children receive food stamp benefits, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All but two states have seen their enrollment increase over the past year, with Texas being in the top 10 for increased caseloads.

Participation isn’t likely to fall anytime soon, said Stacy Dean, director for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. The single biggest predictor of food-stamp usage is the economy. Until the nation gets out of a recession, the numbers will almost certainly stay high, she said.

That correlates with what workers have seen at Caritas, a Waco relief agency. More people are coming in for food from the pantry. But more people also are inquiring about food stamps, said Esther Morales, director of a program aimed at getting people signed up for benefits. The program, called Helpings, operates out of Caritas.

Until a few months ago, only about 25 percent of people who got food from the pantry asked about food stamps, Morales said. Now, about half do.

“The working poor are a lot of the people we’re helping,” Morales said. “One income is just not making it. Even households with a husband and a wife working aren’t making it.”

Helpings is trying to alert people to recent changes made to the food-stamp program. One is its name. It’s now officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

More important, though, are changes in the eligibility criteria, Morales said. As of Oct. 1, people can have more resources and still qualify. If someone has been turned down in the past but still needs help, they should consider reapplying, she said.

Those changes included raising the income limits for the program and making changes in how a family’s income is calculated. As a result, more families are eligible, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees the state’s food-stamp program.

One of the recent changes was that a cap on child care was removed. Similarly, the standard deduction for expenses was increased for households of one to three people, Goodman said.

In general, families must have an income of 130 percent or less of the federal poverty line to qualify for the program. A family of four, for example, could earn up to $2,915 a month and still qualify.

But income is not the sole factor. To determine how much money a family needs for food, the program also looks at expenses such as child care and rent. It then calculates how much money a family has left over after basic expenses and calculates eligibility based on that.

The two groups most likely to qualify but who aren’t receiving food stamps are senior citizens and working-poor families, Dean said. She said people sometimes refrain from applying because they think they would be taking away from others with more dire needs. But that’s not the case, she said.

“This program has enough money for everyone who needs it,” Dean said.

The government says 36.2 million Americans lived in “food-insecure” households last year, meaning they were unsure whether they would be able to get enough food to meet the needs of everyone in their family. For certain groups, the statistics are even more bleak.

Nearly 38 percent of households with incomes below the federal poverty line were food-insecure, as were 30 percent of households headed by single mothers. In Texas, 14.8 percent of the population is food-insecure, according to numbers from the agriculture department.

Waco resident Brian Pankonien, 31, said he does not know how he would eat if it weren’t for food stamps. Health problems prevent him from working, he said, but his disability benefits from the U.S. Social Security Administration have not been finalized. So in the interim, he relies on food stamps, he said.

Pankonien estimated that his benefits cover 75 percent of his grocery bill, and that’s with him being careful with what he purchases, he said. Hot dogs are a staple of his diet. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, he said he often must buy canned or frozen varieties instead of fresh produce.

The key to maximizing benefits, Pankonien said, is experimentation.

“You’ve got to find what’s good if you go cheap with it and what’s not good if you go cheap with it,” he said.

Scarlet Doggett, a 23-year-old Hillsboro resident who gets food stamps, said she hopes the economic downturn makes society more educated about the program. Too many people think it is used only by people who refuse to work, but that’s not the case, she said. She lost her job as a waitress when the restaurant she was working at closed and has not been able to find employment since, she said.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions,” said Doggett, who has a 3-year-old son.

To find out more information about food stamps, visit the Texas Health and Human Services office at 2010 La Salle Ave. in Waco or call it at 752-4839.

Information about food stamps also is available online at Your Texas Benefits.

Published on Wednesday, December 17, 2008