by Heidi Goldberg
Cities face significant challenges in helping connect eligible low-income families and individuals to the federal Food Stamp Program, according to a recent report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).
The study, ?Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City-by-City Snapshot,? provides an overview of food stamps and hunger in 24 of the nation?s largest urban areas.
According to the report, Americans in urban areas are more likely to suffer from hunger and to pay more for food. In 2004, 15 percent of households in the surveyed cities did not have a sufficient diet, compared with 11 percent of households in the entire U.S. population.
However, only 66 percent of people surveyed in the 24 cities who were eligible for food stamps were actually receiving them. This left almost $2 billion in food stamp benefits unclaimed in these cities.
Food Stamp Program
The federal Food Stamp Program aims to provide access to nutritious food for all Americans through electronic benefit transfer cards that allow low-income individuals to purchase food at grocery stores. For those living below the poverty line, which includes one out of every four children in most of the reviewed urban areas, food stamps can be crucial to preventing hunger.
Yet families living in many urban areas face multiple barriers to claiming food stamp benefits, such as language issues, lack of knowledge about the program and how to obtain benefits and concern about a stigma associated with using food stamps.
There are a number of strategies cities can use to increase food stamp participation rates, thereby bringing unclaimed federal dollars into the community. These include targeted outreach campaigns in multiple languages and using technology to connect individuals to benefits.
?Research shows that each dollar in federal benefits generates nearly twice that in economic activity,? said FRAC Legal Director Ellen Vollinger. ?We can do much more to connect eligible people with benefits by making it easier for them to sign up. We also can raise awareness of the program by getting information about food stamps to people where they work, go to school, get health care, obtain services, pray and shop.?
Outreach Efforts
The four areas that had the highest food stamp participation rates (90 percent or more of eligible families participating) were Memphis, Tenn., Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Detroit. Memphis and Milwaukee both use an online screening tool to make food stamps and other benefit programs more accessible to families.
Innovative campaigns are underway in many other cities as well. In West Hollywood, Calif., Mayor John Heilman and his fellow city councilmembers recently kicked off a campaign to end hunger by helping residents access food stamps and other food programs. The city is working with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services and school principals to help eligible families enroll in the food stamp program, the school breakfast program and the afterschool snack program.
Details: To download the full report, visit www.frac.org. Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has developed Food Stamp Program outreach toolkits, available at www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/outreach/tool-kits.htm, which can serve as a guide to municipal officials and staff.
To learn more about using technology to connect individuals to federal, state and local benefits, see NLC?s Special Report, ?Screening Tools to Help Families Access Public Benefits,? by visiting www.nlc.org/iyef. For more information, contact Heidi Goldberg at (202) 626-3069 or goldberg@nlc.org.
There?s Hunger and Hope in America?s Cities
by Vicki Escarra
With the holiday season approaching, many of us who enjoy the blessings of family and prosperity reflect on the circumstances of those less fortunate than ourselves. I am speaking of those families for whom the choice between ?heat or eat? is a real life dilemma when the weather turns cold, and whose holiday dinners will be on plastic tables at the local mission or soup kitchen or shelter ? places where the hands of one in four people holding out a plate for a turkey dinner will be those of a child.
Some 4.5 million people this week alone will receive assistance from the nation?s food banks. This holiday season, we are seeing increasing hunger in our cities. Recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that more than 38 million of our neighbors ? more than 12 percent of our population ? are food insecure and hungry or at risk of hunger.
More than 25 million different people turned to food banks in the past year, according to America?s Second Harvest, the country?s largest supplier of food assistance to hungry Americans. Equally shocking is that 37 percent of the households served by America?s Second Harvest include at least one employed adult, and 36 percent, or approximately 9 million, of all food bank recipients are children.
There is something we can all do to help families who struggle to keep their children from knowing hunger. Everyone can volunteer some of their time this season at a local food bank, food pantry, soup kitchen or shelter.
Our country?s approach to food assistance will also be affected by the new Congress, which will reauthorize the farm bill next year. What does a farm bill have to do with cities? Farm bills are more than just agriculture ? they provide badly needed food support to low-income families in our cities and towns. More than half of the farm bill spending will be in food assistance programs like food stamps and commodity donation programs for food banks, which feed millions of families in our communities, whether urban or rural. We need to be involved.
The challenge is big, but our hearts are bigger and we?re up to the task. America?s Second Harvest wishes you a wonderful holiday season. May we all be inspired to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors.
Details: To find the food bank in your community, visit the America?s Second Harvest web site at www.secondharvest.org.
Vicki Escarra is the president & CEO of America?s Second Harvest ? The Nation?s Food Bank Network.