Benefits are meager and underused - Food Stamps - NYT

Benefits Are Meager and Underused - NYT

Christopher Greenslate

Christopher Greenslate is co-author of “On a Dollar a Day: One Couple’s Unlikely Adventures in Eating in America,” to be published by Hyperion in February 2010.

Despite the roar from the well-fed about what people in poverty should do to be self-reliant, federal nutrition programs including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as Food Stamps) are doing what they can to make sure people who need help are able to get it, at least at the federal level. However, in the debate over food stamp allocation, common misperceptions travel faster than truth.

People on food stamps know what is healthy, and what isn’t.

To understand the problem on a more personal level, my partner and I lived it: for a month. We ate according to the average SNAP allotment, and contributed the suggested amount of personal income as well. We even followed the USDA’s “Thrifty Food Plan” and bought only food listed on its menu plan; we ran out of food before the end of the month.

What we learned about food stamps was at odds with everything we had heard. For instance, while many people think that the poor are duping the system, the actual rate of fraud is only 2 to 4 percent. The government has mostly settled the controversy over what types of foods people should buy, and these issues only serve as distractions. The real challenges facing SNAP are mostly at the state and local levels.

Where we live in San Diego, only 29 percent of those who are eligible for benefits are receiving them, the worst rate for an urban area in the country. The application process is complex, intrusive and humiliating. The average applicant has to make five trips to a center, have every adult in the home fingerprinted, and is subject to home searches by the district attorney’s office.

The irony is that these costs put a drain on the economic boost that food stamp funds give to the economy. Every dollar of food stamps spent generates $1.84 in economic activity, which means that since our county is not getting benefits to those who need them, we’ve lost over $250 million this year. For California, that’s a $3-million loss in potential tax revenue.

People on food stamps know what is healthy and what isn’t. But this doesn’t help them unless local governments are doing everything they can to ensure that those who are eligible are getting access to the benefits they so desperately need.