Experts Say Fewer Poor Relying on Food Stamps

Despite California’s growing economy, the number of working families in the state who are going hungry every day is also growing, participants in a two-day hunger workshop warned Sunday.

At fault is a dwindling use of food stamps by low-income wage earners, who either think they are no longer eligible for the federal assistance or have been erroneously told they don’t qualify for it, said experts taking part in the California Nutrition Initiative Conference in Santa Monica.

Only 57% of Californians who need food stamps use them, said Kenneth Hecht, head of California Food Policy Advocates, a nonprofit San Francisco agency that assists low-income residents.

“It’s crazy. Here’s a federal program that actually works, and it’s getting fouled up because of the overwhelming number of people who think they aren’t eligible for food stamps and they are,” Hecht said.

Rabbi Marvin Gross, head of a 26-year-old homeless shelter in Pasadena called the Union Station Foundation, said his group is taking care of more clients than ever before.

“The notion we’re doing great and all the small boats are rising on the economic tide is an outrageous lie,” said Gross. “We’re feeding the working poor every day. They walk in or come on bicycles from their jobs. They don’t even know they could get food stamps.”

Food stamps are government-issued coupons that can be used as cash at grocery stores and supermarkets.

A single person must have a gross monthly income of less than $893 to qualify for food coupons worth $127 a month. A family of four with an income of $1,810 or less can receive stamps totaling $426.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that as many as 4 million Californians are entitled to food stamps under those guidelines. But since 1995, the number receiving food stamps has dropped 38%--from about 3.2 million to a statewide total of more than 2 million.

Strategies for reversing that decline are being mapped by representatives of 41 hunger-relief organizations meeting through today.

California requires recipients to submit monthly reports that are accompanied by pay stubs, said David Super, general counsel for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an independent advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

Some California counties place calls to neighbors and employers to verify an applicant’s personal information, and others use home visits to check on recipients--something many low-income working families consider humiliating, Super said.

Many people are not told when they find work and leave welfare that food stamps are available to those with jobs, he added. And signing up for welfare can take at least two trips and about five hours of time--something that newly employed workers are reluctant to take off work to do.

The agencies represented at the Santa Monica conference will be encouraged to promote food stamps to users of their soup kitchens, shelters and food banks, said Susan Cramer, executive director of Mazon, a Los Angeles Jewish organization that is sponsoring the session.

The organizations are also being asked to help lobby Sacramento lawmakers for changes in the food stamp program. Suggested changes include opening welfare offices during the evening or on weekends to make it easier for low-income workers to establish eligibility.