Food Stamp Benefits Expire for 100,000

Jobless adults who have been on food stamps for three months lost them Saturday--the first cutoff date under a new welfare law.

The reformed rules say childless adults who are younger than 50 and able to work can get food stamps for just three months out of every three years.

As of this weekend, nearly 100,000 people have used up those benefits, which amount to $120 a month for groceries. Before the year is out, their ranks are expected to swell to 1 million unemployed Americans no longer eligible for nutritional aid.

Olivia Ivy, the director of Martha’s Table, which serves meals and distributes canned goods to about 1,500 poor and homeless people in Washington each day, said she has seen rising fear about the food stamp cuts for some time.

“For the last two months our lines have been growing longer and longer,” she said.

Ivy said her clients have also expressed more anxiety about finding work.

“I think there are a number of people beginning to realize . . . they have got to find a job,” she said, adding that without training or affordable housing, many won’t be able to.

Indeed, there is concern in many economically depressed areas of the country that people who want work but can’t get it will be unfairly punished. The new food stamp law allows states to request federal exemptions in places where unemployment is particularly high.

“I know a lot of states have asked for waivers,” said Jim Petterson, an Agriculture Department spokesman.

The White House has said it will try to convince Congress to temper cuts to the 35-year-old food stamp program. President Clinton has proposed continuing benefits for people who can prove they are job hunting. In his 1998 budget, he has included $280 million for states to create government “workfare” programs in which the unemployed could earn food stamps and other benefits.

Republicans on Capitol Hill--including Rep. John R. Kasich of Ohio, chairman of the House Budget Committee and a sponsor of the food stamp overhaul--have vowed, however, not to reopen the debate on welfare reform.