1. NPR: Food Bank Encourages People to Apply for Food Stamps
(Morning Edition, NPR, April 23, 2008)

Pennsylvania’s Project Share food pantry is profiled in this NPR “Morning Edition” story. With the increased need in the community, the pantry has limited supplies of popular items, including baby food. Now, they give one can of infant formula to families instead of the usual three cans. People with full-time jobs are seeking help – approximately 1000 families each month, sometimes 100 a day, look to the pantry to help them get by – which is why Project Share is encouraging families to apply for food stamps. Laura Tobin of the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center is featured helping potential food stamp recipients fill out an online application at the Project Share warehouse. “A lot of people don’t know that they’re eligible,” said Tobin, and said that many people think they can’t apply if they have a car or own a home. About 1.2 million Pennsylvanians – or one out of 11 – received food stamps last month.

2. County Sees Largest Rise in Food Stamp Numbers in Years
(Middletown Journal, April 21, 2008)

Ohio’s Butler County counted 28,000 food stamp recipients in 2007, up from 11,000 in 2001. “The numbers are just unprecedented for this county,” said Butler County Job and Family Services assistant director Jerome Kearns. Statewide, one million people received food stamps in 2007. “More people are using the pantry, too,” said food stamp outreach coordinator Gloria Bateman, who works for Shared Harvest Foodbank. “The main problem is gasoline costs, food costs. They can’t feed their families and they’re having a hard time finding out where to go.” Local authorities add low wages and unemployment to the list of hardships forcing people to seek help. One of those residents is Kathleen Harrison, a licensed practical nurse. After she was laid off in December from her nursing home job, her savings quickly ran out and she lost her home. She now lives at the Serve City shelter, and is applying for food stamps.

3. Food Stamps Help Family Weather Multiple Economic Problems
(KMBC, April 22, 2008)

Kansas City, Mo. resident Sara Rosbaugh responded to KMBC’s story on high gas prices with a description of her family’s struggles to paying bills during the current economic crisis. She notes that, although food and fuel prices are going up, her pay is not; in a single day she spends $15 driving to and from her job. While her husband’s brain tumor and heart condition make him too sick to work, he’s not sick enough to qualify for disability payments. Food stamps help Rosbaugh stretch the family’s meager earnings and feed their two daughters. She says she would probably have to send them to relatives if the food stamps were cut off. After paying fuel and medical bills – stemming from her husband’s illness - the family has been living off $650 a month. Rosbaugh wrote that she hasn’t been to see a doctor for herself in four years.

4. West Texans Battle Hunger as Food Prices Rise across the State and Country
(Lubbockonline.com, April 20, 2008)

The Texas region of South Plains/Panhandle currently has 16 counties with major populations of poor people. According to Celia Hagert of the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorties, rural areas “…tend to have more poverty because they are more isolated and don’t have a good public transportation system. The people in rural areas can’t always get the help they need.” Food banks in the area look to Congress to pass the Farm Bill with a funding increase to the Food Stamp Program to help residents battle hunger. Many of these residents now find they have to ask for help or else go hungry. Rising food costs have hit Americans hard according to a U.S. Labor Department report issued last week. Lubbock resident Amber Lovette is able to supplement her $600 disability check with $56 in food stamps each month; she also relies on other food programs like Meals on Wheels in addition to other forms of assistance. “This is very hard for me to accept,” said the 56-year-old former nurse. “I was raised not to ask for help.”

5. Multiple Economic Woes Driving the Middle Class to Social Services Offices
(Reno Gazette-Journal, April 20, 2008)

Home foreclosures, low wages, high consumer prices and few jobs are forcing people in Nevada to seek help – but not the usual populations. Carson Valley Medical Center social worker Judy Burkholder notes “The people we’re seeing coming in are the people not used to applying for services.” The state’s food stamp cases are up, and welfare and Medicaid caseloads rose more than 30 percent since 2007. Increased food prices are causing many food stamp recipients to use up their monthly allotment before the end of the month. However, the state reserves are insufficient to fully fund social service programs, and child-care assistance, energy assistance, and TANF funds are rapidly running low. Experts believe it’s going to get worse. “It’s not desperate right now,” said Gary Stagliano, deputy administrator of the Welfare Services Division. “[B]ut there’s troubled waters ahead.” Nevada’s state budget has a $914 million shortfall; at the same time, the greatest number of its residents are most needy.

6. “Daunting Statistics” Reveal Much of Ohio’s Population Receive Federal Food Assistance
(Columbus Dispatch, April 21, 2008)

Soaring food and fuel prices coupled with stagnant wages have forced significant numbers of low-income Ohioans to accept help with feeding their families. In addition to using donations from food pantries – some of which have had to close down due to increased demand – families are getting assistance from:

WIC: half of babies born in Ohio receive nutrition services;
Free and reduced-price school lunch: serving one-third of Ohio’s schoolchildren;
Food stamps: assisting one out of every ten Ohio residents.

At press time for this story, and in spite of the numbers, Congress has yet to pass the Farm Bill with an increased nutrition title, and the current presidential candidates have not focused on the issue of hunger.

7. Shoppers Turn to “Junk” Foods to Help Feed Families
(Port Huron Times Herald, April 20, 2008)

In order to afford to feed the three grandchildren in her care, 44-year-old Michigan resident Tracey Beard is walking and taking the bus to cut back on expenses as well as relying on less expensive food. "The food's getting so expensive, it's getting harder to buy snacks for the kids," she said. Manufacturers blame the rising cost on increases in wheat and sugar prices, along with other ingredients. State advocates note that job salaries are not keeping up with the inflated food costs. In addition, the state has experienced huge losses in formerly well-paying manufacturing jobs, causing families to also lose medical benefits. Although the Michigan Food Assistance program now distributes food stamps to one out of every eight state residents, that assistance isn’t keeping up with inflation. “We figure that milk costs as much as gasoline,” said state resident Brandy Deanda. She tells her children “not to take too much [milk]. We tell them if you’re going to take [it], make sure you drink all of it.”

8. State Axes Plan for Universal School Breakfast
(Palm Beach Post, April 23, 2008)

All Florida children attending schools with a high percentage of low-income students would have received free breakfasts, but budget cuts caused the Senate to reshape the bill. The revised bill now only mandates school districts to decide by 2010 whether or not to offer universal breakfast. Also cut from the bill was an incentive program aimed at increasing the number of children eating school breakfasts. Commenting on the revisions, Florida Impact executive director Debra Susie said “It really doesn’t do much anymore. My understanding is that wasn’t going to fly this year because everything is going to get cut.” Currently, just a few counties with 80 percent or more low-income students who receive free breakfast offer the meal to all students for free. According to a survey by Florida Impact, Palm Beach County served breakfast to only a third of the 20,710 students eligible for free and reduced-price lunches during 2006-2007.

9. Privatized System Fails to Deliver Food Stamps in Indiana
(Muncie Star Press, April 23, 2008; Herald Bulletin, April 22, 2008)

When Muncie resident Pat Smith, who requires a special diet to prevent diabetes-related complications, didn’t receive her food stamps in March, she called eight governmental agencies to inquire and complain. “Every time we got the same answer: I don’t know when you’re going to get them,” she said. Smith isn’t the only one complaining. The privatized welfare system, which started last fall in 12 counties, has been dubbed a failure by advocates for seniors, people with disabilities, and other low-income residents. Run in Marion through a call center operated by IBM and Affiliated Computer Services, the system replaced the network of county welfare offices and caseworkers. A “People’s Town Hall” meeting is now scheduled for May in order to discuss the problems. Center Township Trustee Kay Walker, the meeting’s organizer, tried to investigate individual cases where services weren’t delivered or assistance recipients could not get through to the call center. “Every time we call the local office, they don’t answer the phone,” she said. “Every time we call Marion, they are busy or they don’t return phone calls.” Other cases include:

- Todd Barton’s family, who went for weeks without food stamps and “skimped and scraped together little meals, whatever we could;”
- U.S. Army veteran Charles Baxter, whose liver is failing; he hasn’t “heard a thing yet” about his application for Medicaid, which he filed almost one year ago;
- Bobbi Brown and her son – both mentally challenged – who recently had their Medicaid and food stamp benefits cut.

A spokesperson for the state’s Family and Social Services Administration, said the state wants to help and takes every complaint seriously.

10. Texas Food Stamp Outreach Aims to Get the Word Out
(Jasper Newsboy, April 23, 2008)

The Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) is launching a coordinated outreach plan to get more people to sign up for food stamps. DETCOG is has also organized a campaign titled “Did You Know” which gets the word out about food stamps by distributing flyers at dollar stores and grocery stores, where the Lone Star Card is accepted. Outreach workers are educating people in rural areas, through programs in churches, senior centers, and travel to people’s homes to help them with food stamp application paperwork. While outreach in the cities includes providing possible recipients bus tokens to travel to the food stamp offices, rural workers don’t have that luxury, as there are no public transportation options in those areas. Workers also rely on volunteers to help with outreach by passing out flyers and contacting church members.

11. Food Stamps Serve More than 30,000 in New Hampshire
(fosters.com, April 23, 2008)

March 2008 saw 31,421 food stamp cases processed by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), up from 29,090 in March 2007. “We’re gaining 400 cases a month,” commented Terry Smith, director of the DHHS Division of Family Assistance. “The last three months are abberationally high, even for seasonal adjustments.” Data collected by Smith’s office shows a steady increase in the numbers of people applying for food stamps, with the rate of increase unusually high this year. Food pantries are struggling with reduced financial and food donations while reporting high numbers of people seeking assistance. One food bank reports serving 10,000 meals during a recent month. A state study shows the reasons for the increase in need: child care costs rose 80 percent over the past five years; housing rose 51 percent over ten years; and heating fuel rose more than 54 percent in six years. The price increases are affecting New Hampshire’s middle- and low-income residents, who have to choose which bills to pay each month. “Many people are living right on the edge,” said Tom Brown, co-director of the Community Food Bank in Somersworth.

12. New WIC Food Package Will Improve Diets of Recipients
(Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2008)

Beginning October 2009, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and soy products in a move to bring the program in line with current dietary standards. The foods now in the food package are more in line with the government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and more fully match messages delivered by WIC program staff, which emphasize the importance of including more fresh produce into diets. That’s getting harder for many families to accomplish as food prices climb. A report from the American Dietetic Association in November 2007 reported that, in order for a family to meet the dietary guidelines, they would have to spend 43 to 70 percent of their food budget on fresh fruits and vegetables - typical families currently spend only 15 to 18 percent on fresh produce. With the changes to the WIC food packages, participants will now have vouchers that can be used at farmers’ markets or grocery stores to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables.

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