The weekly Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) News Digest highlights what's new on hunger, nutrition and poverty issues at FRAC, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, around the network of national, state and local anti-poverty and anti-hunger organizations, and in the media. The Digest will alert you to trends, reports, news items and resources and, when available, link you directly to them.

1. Food Stamps Served Nearly 1.2 Million More People in January 2006 Than in January 2005
2. USDA Awards Grants to Nine States to Improve Access to Free School Meals for Low-Income Children
3. Costly Gas Hits Americans on Fixed and Modest Incomes
4. Agriculture Secretary Thanks Food Bank Volunteers, Recognizes National Volunteer Week
5. Higher Costs of WIC Infant Formula Could Lead to Decrease in People Served
6. Spreading Low-Wage “Counter Culture” Widens Gap Between Rich and Poor
7. Op-Ed: Asset-Poor Americans Add to Ranks of Those Living in Poverty
8. Essay: Young Black Men’s Crisis in New Economy Is Nation’s Problem
9. Young Scholars Outline Ways to Deal with Obesity
10. Film and Music Star Jared Leto Moved From Food Stamps to Stardom
11. Pennsylvania Outreach Project Helps Hispanics Overcome Language Barrier and Apply for Assistance
12. California Bill Would Cut Red Tape in Food Stamp Program
13. Texas Senators Seek More Emergency Funds for Providing Food Stamps and Workforce Training to Hurricane Evacuees
14. Op-Ed: Massachusetts Outpaced Nation in Rising Emergency Food Use
15. Snapshot of Hunger in Minnesota Reveals Growing Need
16. Op-Ed: New York Mayor “Inexplicably” Resists Easing Food Stamp Rules
17. Georgia Schools Seek to Boost Standardized Test Scores with Hot Breakfast
18. Nebraska: Agencies Worry About President’s Proposal for Human Services Budget Cuts
19. Georgia: School Districts Differ in Their New Student Wellness Policies
20. California School Goes Healthy Surpassing Federal Guidelines for Public School Meals
21. California: Fresno Schools First in State to Adopt Wellness Policy
22. New York County Staffs Four New Local Sites to Accept Food Stamp Applications
23. Calls from Food Stamp Applicants in Michigan Forwarded to India

1. Food Stamps Served Nearly 1.2 Million More People in January 2006 Than in January 2005

(“Food Stamp Caseloads Dip Over Month in January 2006; But Nearly 1.2 Million More People Participated in January 2006 Than in January 2005,” frac.org, May 1, 2006)

In January 2006 food stamp participation dipped to 26,614,529 persons, 73,911 fewer than in December 2005. However, the caseload fell by more than 150,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, while growing in the rest of the country as a whole, suggesting that the drop may reflect persons affected in those states by Katrina, Rita and Wilma losing benefits as special programs lapse. The overall caseload was still nearly 1.2 million persons higher than the prior January and nearly 7.7 million persons higher than in January 2002. Food Stamp Program growth (outside the recent volatility in hurricane-affected states) has reflected continuing wage stagnation, state and local action to improve program access, and the effects of the implementation of the 2002 food stamp reauthorization. Participation has risen in 52 of the last 61 months. Compared to a year earlier, participation in January 2006 rose in all but nine states.

http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/06.01_FSP.html

2. USDA Awards Grants to Nine States to Improve Access to Free School Meals for Low-Income Children

(“USDA Awards $3.76 Million to States to Ensure Access to School Meals for Low-Income Children,” usda.gov, April 29, 2006)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $3.76 million in grants to state agencies in North Carolina, California, Wyoming, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington, and Pennsylvania to support the states’ efforts to provide children who qualify for the Food Stamp Program with free meals in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. “Nutritious meals are an important part of every child’s school day,” said USDA Secretary Mike Johanns. “These grants will enable states to directly certify eligible children for free school meals, ensuring that more children will have access to the nutrition assistance they need.” Under direct certification, families receiving food stamps do not have to submit a separate application to participate in free school meals. Although direct certification has been practiced for more than a decade, states are at different stages in adopting and using such systems. The grant money will help improve computer data-matching systems or create new systems in states that do not already use direct certification. The funding for the grants is authorized by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004. More information is available at http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns.

http://tinyurl.com/peulg

3. Costly Gas Hits Americans on Fixed and Modest Incomes

(“Rising Gasoline Prices Hit Poorest Americans Hardest,” buffalonews.com, April 24, 2006)

Kenneth and Edith Taylor of Baltimore are among those hard hit by rising gasoline prices. Already struggling to make ends meet on $1,700 in monthly Social Security checks, they are saving money on food and clothes, cooking casseroles and soups at home and wearing old clothes as long as possible. Families like the Taylors, “barely making it from check to check, are making sacrifices that the vast majority of Americans wouldn't dream of. Late last year, with electricity and home-heating bills soaring, Kenneth Taylor tried to pinch pennies by not taking his high-blood-pressure medications as frequently as prescribed. He soon collapsed and landed himself in the hospital.” Analysts say families living on fixed or modest incomes usually are the first to cut back. Wachovia Corp. economist Jason Schenker said the most price-sensitive Americans would continue cutting back on gasoline where they can, spending less on other goods. “All of these energy costs are having a compounding effect,” warned Carol Clements of the National Fuels Fund Network, which assists poor families with electricity or home-heating bills. “We’re seeing more people bumped from middle and working class to low-income and poverty situations.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060424/1053933.asp

4. Agriculture Secretary Thanks Food Bank Volunteers, Recognizes National Volunteer Week

(“Johanns Volunteers at Pennsylvania Food Bank for National Volunteer Week,” usda.gov, April 24, 2006)

In recognition of National Volunteer Week April 23-29, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum participated in a volunteer project by thanking volunteers and giving a USDA service award to an outstanding volunteer at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. “Across our country each day volunteers strengthen our communities by helping neighbors in need,” said Johanns. “President Bush has called on each of us to reaffirm our commitment to compassionate service and help America become a stronger country.” The USDA’s Volunteer Service Award was presented to Central Pennsylvania Food Bank volunteer Charlie Radle, who has been volunteering each week day for seven years.

http://tinyurl.com/pexzh

5. Higher Costs of WIC Infant Formula Could Lead to Decrease in People Served

(“Food Assistance: FNS Could Take Additional Steps to Contain WIC Infant Formula Costs,” gao.gov, March 2006)

This report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests that reductions in infant formula rebates by manufacturers to states in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) could lead to fewer WIC participants being served. In FY 2004, states paid an average of $0.20 per can of milk-based formula, saving 93 percent of the wholesale price. When states allow some use of non-contract, non-rebated formula, it cost them more than 10 times as much as contract formulas. In 2004, 8 percent of WIC formula was non-rebated, some of that because it was prescribed for specific medical or dietary problems. Savings from rebates, received through competitively bid, sole-source contracts, have enabled WIC to serve an additional 2 million participants per year. USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) should prevent infant formula costs from rising when manufacturers introduce more expensive formulas during contract negotiations and also find more effective ways to restrict the use of non-rebated formulas by WIC participants.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06380.pdf

6. Spreading Low-Wage “Counter Culture” Widens Gap Between Rich and Poor

(“The High Cost of Low Wages,” recordonline.com, April 23, 2006)

Not long ago most minimum wage retail jobs went to teenagers, moms working for spending cash, and retirees looking to stay busy, but today one-third of the workforce in Orange County, N.Y., stands behind the counter, feeling overworked, underpaid and unhappy. They are the new “counter culture,” the lowest-paid and fastest-growing job segment in the region and nationwide. America is importing more goods than it manufactures. People who sell the growing imports cannot afford homes, pay for college or rent a decent apartment. Only about half have health insurance. And there is no easy way out of the ranks of the have-nots. “I’m poor. I’m living at home. It’s not what I went to school for,” says Tony Capobianco, 27, who has a political science degree, but works for $7.25 per hour selling vitamins. “There’s really been a breakdown of the social contract,” says Annette Bernhardt of NYU’s Brennan Center of Justice, “that if you worked hard and stuck with it and made a commitment to the company, you would share in the gain.” This low wage counter culture also leaves people less time to engage in community work and volunteering and to be with their families.

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/04/23/news-sicounter-04-23.html

7. Op-Ed: Asset-Poor Americans Add to Ranks of Those Living in Poverty

(“Fighting Poverty in Metro Louisville,” courier-journal.com, April 24, 2006)

Louisville Metro Community Action Partnership (LMCAP), which helps low-income individuals through programs such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), emergency services and employment programs, is often required to use the federal poverty guidelines to determine eligibility for services, writes Kimberly L. Bunton of LMCAP in the LouisvilleCourier Journal, Ky. But the poverty measurement based on annual cash income, used by the government, is merely one approach to identifying the poor, she argues. “Poverty’s profile is not consistent. Nor is poverty plainly identifiable.” Researchers Robert Haveman and Edward N. Wolff introduced a term, “asset poverty,” and developed a poverty measurement based on family’s assets. An individual might have an official annual income above the poverty line, but at the same time lack the resources necessary to fulfill basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter when life-altering events, such as a job loss or unexpected illness, occur. According to Wolff and Haveman, in 1998 one-quarter to one-half of all Americans were asset poor (compared to the official income poverty rate of nearly 12 percent). While the income poverty rate declined by 16 percent between 1983 and 1998, asset poverty rose 14 percent. “This past winter provided a prime example ... Due largely to the precipitous increase in energy bills, LMCAP experienced an influx of new LIHEAP clients,” Bunton writes.

http://tinyurl.com/p4lck

8. Essay: Young Black Men’s Crisis in New Economy Is Nation’s Problem

(“Rescuing Society’s Dropouts,” philly.com, April 21, 2006)

Fifty years ago nobody thought of the brilliant portrayal of a black man as invisible in Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man” as prophetic. Now Ellison’s words could describe a growing population of invisible urban young black men, stripped of opportunity and the manufacturing jobs that used to exist for them, writes Sandra Shea in the Philadelphia Daily News. In the nation’s cities, more than half of all black males drop out of school. There are more young male dropouts in prison than at a job on any given day in America. The Urban Institute’s “Black Males Left Behind” is a newly released collection of studies documenting the black men’s crisis in the new economy. This crisis is the nation’s problem, argues Shea. “A declining job base means that the economic heart of neighborhoods and the city at large is at risk,” Shea says. University of Pennsylvania sociologist Elijah Anderson “calls young, poor black men the canaries in the coal mine of America: the disturbing symbols of a larger middle class, both black and white, that is facing down the same globalization and shifting job base, and diminished opportunities.” Yet workforce and education programs, including the Community Services block grant and Workforce Investment Act, face budget cut proposals.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/14393526.htm

http://www.urban.org/pubs/blackmales/preface.html (more on “Black Males Left Behind”)

9. Young Scholars Outline Ways to Deal with Obesity

(“Teen Scholars Tackle Weight Problems,” usatoday.com, April 26, 2006)

To stop the obesity epidemic, America needs a “shock and awe” campaign that would advertise in an attention-getting way the grim health consequences of being overweight, such as heart attacks, cancer, stroke and type 2 diabetes, concluded a group of award-winning high school students. They presented their slimming down recommendations at the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the College Board. This year, about 25 percent of the 60 finalists researched projects related to weight, body image, exercise and similar issues. Jasper Sneff Nanni, 17, of Philadelphia believes that participation in sports should be mandatory during middle school and the first two years of high school. Research by Aman Prasad, 18, of Pocatello, Idaho, one of the first-place winners, showed that students who exercise three or more days a week are in better spirits than those who do not exercise.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-04-26-teens-obesity_x.htm

10. Film and Music Star Jared Leto Moved From Food Stamps to Stardom

(“Multifaceted Jared Leto Acts On – and Rocks On, Too,” insidebayarea.com, April 28, 2006)

Jared Leto, 34, the Bossier City, La.-born film and music star, lived all over the country with his peripatetic parents before embarking on his own career. Now, giddy fans are happy to get his autograph in merchandise booths for his aggro-rawk band 30 Seconds To Mars or just to get a glimpse of the doe-eyed star of blockbuster films “Alexander,” “Panic Room,” “Requiem for a Dream,” not to mention TV series “Desperate Housewives,” where Leto plays Eva Longoria’s new love interest. When he started getting work in film, he recalls, “the fact that I was able to pay my rent with that was a blessing for someone who grew up on food stamps.”

http://insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_3762029

11. Pennsylvania Outreach Project Helps Hispanics Overcome Language Barrier and Apply for Assistance

(“CJP Helps Hispanic Families Adjust to New Surroundings,” standardspeaker.com, April 23, 2006)

Natalia Gomez, the only employee of the Community Justice Project (CJP) in Hazleton, Pa., works well beyond her paid, part-time hours on the Hispanic Outreach and Advocacy Project that focuses on outreach, education and training regarding public benefits. Gomez helps immigrants who do not understand English translate documents, mostly from the government, and directs them to the services they need. Gomez sees people like Yacquelin Severino of Hazleton who still does not know why her food stamp benefits were delayed for three months, but who “credits Gomez with moving her application along.” Local agencies and organizations do not always have translators or have translators who do not speak a client’s dialect. The agencies are required to provide language access if they receive federal funding, Gomez explained. As an example of bad communication, she showed a letter written entirely in Spanish, except one English line that directed a client to bring an identification card with him to the appointment. “How does the man know what to bring if it isn’t in Spanish, and what happens if he shows up for the appointment with an ID?” Gomez asked.

http://tinyurl.com/lzbvp (subscription required)

12. California Bill Would Cut Red Tape in Food Stamp Program

(“Putting Food On the Table,” montereycountyweekly.com, April 28, 2006)

Central Coast Assemblyman John Laird is trying to move a new bill through the legislature that would make it easier for Californians to receive food stamps. Laird says that AB 3029, or the Food Stamp Simplification Act of 2006, will cut red tape and improve access to the program. The bill will simplify reporting rules by reducing the reporting time from three months to six months. It also will reduce the number of office visits, which low-income workers need to make during their working hours to keep their food stamps. Since 2 million Californians eligible for food stamps do not receive them, “we’re giving up $2 billion from the federal government … [which could] feed people who need food,” Laird says.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/issues/Issue.04-27-2006/news/Article.news_5

13. Texas Senators Seek More Emergency Funds for Providing Food Stamps and Workforce Training to Hurricane Evacuees

(“State Wants More Storm Relief,” mysanantonio.com, April, 27, 2006)

U.S. senators from Texas plan to request $324 million in federal funds for uncompensated hurricane expenses. The lawmakers are looking to change funding formulas to help local cities and counties offset rebuilding costs and to provide workforce training and food stamp administrative costs. About 62,000 evacuees are receiving food stamps in Texas, with nearly 97 percent of them from Louisiana. Senators Hutchison and Cornyn are seeking a waiver for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reallocate food stamp funds to states affected the most by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

http://tinyurl.com/nqqyu

14. Op-Ed: Massachusetts Outpaced Nation in Rising Emergency Food Use

(“Protecting Our Hunger Safety Net,” boston.com, April 24, 2006)

A 14 percent four year jump in emergency food use in Massachusetts “outpaced the nation,” which experienced an 8 percent increase since 2001, writes Catherine D’Amato, president and CEO of The Greater Boston Food Bank, in The Boston Globe. According to the food bank’s Hunger in Massachusetts 2006 report, the state’s food banks are serving nearly 500,000 people annually. More than a third of the households served have at least one working adult, and one in four people who use emergency food have a job. Almost 60 percent of emergency food clients “reported having had to make a Hobson’s choice between buying food and paying for rent, fuel, or medical bills.” Food stamps, received by 40 percent of the clients, last an average of 2.5 weeks a month, and most families enroll their children in the school breakfast and lunch programs. With the government playing a vital role in providing food for low-income residents, “we need Congress and the administration to protect the federal safety net nutrition programs in the 2007 budget,” D’Amato says.

http://tinyurl.com/llmy9

15. Snapshot of Hunger in Minnesota Reveals Growing Need

(“The State of Hunger in Minnesota 2005,” hungersolutions.org, April 2006)

“More people are living in poverty or ‘near poverty’ than five years ago. Households which were independent in 2000 are now dependent on food shelves and on-site dining programs …. What were considered emergency solutions are now becoming sustaining programs, a fundamental part of a survival strategy for an increasing number of people,” according to “The State of Hunger in Minnesota 2005” report released by Hunger Solutions Minnesota. The average amount of $159 a month in food support is not sufficient to buy enough food, and people still need to use food shelves. At the same time, only 30 percent of food shelves and meal site clients surveyed use the state’s food support program, formerly known as food stamps, while 80 percent of them are eligible. Of those not participating, 54 percent believe that they do not qualify for the program. At least one-eighth of the children and half of the adults, including those on food assistance, skip meals due to lack of money for food, and even more people have to cut the size of their meals.

http://hungersolutions.org/documents/stateofhungersummary4.pdf

16. Op-Ed: New York Mayor “Inexplicably” Resists Easing Food Stamp Rules

(“A Carrot, a Stick and the Hungry,” nytimes.com, April 23, 2006)

“Mayor Michael Bloomberg is inexplicably resisting an opportunity to ease one of his predecessor’s crueler legacies,” a policy that takes away food stamps from childless adults if they fail to work 80 hours a month, writes The New York Times. There are many reasons why able-bodied people can find themselves out of the workplace, e.g., “mental or other illness, difficulty in finding work, the failure of the bureaucracy to match a person with workfare or job training opportunities.” The number of New Yorkers getting food stamps “remains agonizingly low,” writes The Times, and 600,000 New Yorkers are eligible for, but do not receive the benefits. Moreover, the Bloomberg administration has been sued over its management of the program twice. More than one million New Yorkers “are not sure where their next meal is coming from.” Of them, only 25,000 childless adults who need food would be helped by the policy change, according to the office of City Council member, Bill de Blasio. “It’s hard to imagine what goal is achieved by holding tight to a small-minded regulation that keeps these hard luck cases from eating,” writes the newspaper. “Mr. Bloomberg’s attitude also seems oddly out of step with his broader efforts to alleviate poverty and encourage self-sufficiency.”

http://tinyurl.com/lecah (subscription or purchase required)

See more on this issue in FRAC news digest: http://www.frac.org/html/news/newsdigest/04.24.06.html#14

17. Georgia Schools Seek to Boost Standardized Test Scores with Hot Breakfast

(“Starting the morning right: Eisenhower Juniors Receive Big Breakfasts to Help Them with State Exam,” herald-review.com, April 28, 2006)

Decatur School District, Ga., usually serves cereal and fruit for school breakfast, but on the day of the State Achievement Exam junior students got bacon, eggs, hash browns, fruit, coffee and juice to boost their energy and performance. Ryan Jusk won an iPod, donated by Wal-Mart, in a raffle organized as an incentive for students to show up, and said breakfast made a difference in his test performance. “It was easier for me,” he admitted. “Research has shown that when students are well fed, they do better on tests and it helps prepare them for the day in general," April Hicklin, the Assistant Principal at Eisenhower High School, said. "We decided it would be a good idea to make sure the students were well fed before the ( Prairie State test), and we’ve had an awesome response.”

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2006/04/28/news/local_news/1014821.txt

18. Nebraska: Agencies Worry About President’s Proposal for Human Services Budget Cuts

(“Agencies Worried About Proposed Budget,” journalstar.com, April 20, 2006)

Local and state human service agencies in southeast Nebraska are worried about reductions in domestic programs proposed by President Bush’s FY 2007 budget. Programs in danger of reductions include special education, Head Start, child care, supplemental food programs, food stamps, children’s health insurance and home energy assistance. The president’s proposal is “not in the best interest of low-income and working families,” said Sue Hinrichs of the Lincoln Action Program (LAP), which helps low-income families become independent. Becky Gould, attorney with the Nebraska Appleseed Center, said: “Food needs do not go away. And food pantries are already overburdened.”

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/04/20/local/doc4446e8637f8f8505441132.txt

19. Georgia: School Districts Differ in Their New Student Wellness Policies

(“Schools Trim the Fat in the Cafeteria,” ajc.com, April 20, 2006)

Cupcakes in Georgia schools are not yet banned, but might disappear soon due to a federal mandate for school wellness policies that districts are working to define. School districts vary in their vision of what schools need to do to improve students’ health. According to draft proposals, Clarke and Bartow counties would ban sweetened sodas. Clarke would require the items sold in vending machines, school stores and a la carte lines to meet certain requirements for fat, sodium and serving sizes. DeKalb County would offer fruit and vegetable snack bars in some middle schools. Cobb County would forbid teachers to keep students from attending physical education classes as punishment and would encourage giving students rewards other than food. Cobb County’s original proposal included a ban on food rewards, but that spurred protests from school staff. Cherokee County’s policy sets broad goals, authorizing principals and school-based committees to decide specifics. Many schools emphasize that in order to meet everybody’s interests they focus on developing realistic rather than idealistic policies. Concern over lost vending machine revenues is another factor. A national study by the School Nutrition Association showed that 11 percent of districts had ignored the federal wellness requirement for nutrition education and that larger districts experienced a lack of support for the changes. Jean Daniel, the United States Department of Agriculture spokeswoman, said the agency will be reviewing policies and stepping in with more training and advice if districts do not make meaningful changes. As a last resort, the department could cut school meal funding, though this is unlikely. Making wellness changes will be challenging for some schools, but it is something they must do, commented Agriculture Undersecretary Eric Bost.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/living/stories/0420lvschools.html

Also see http://www.frac.org/pdf/wellness_guide2006.pdf (FRAC guide, “ School Wellness Policy and Practice: Meeting the Needs of Low-Income Students”)

20. California School Goes Healthy Surpassing Federal Guidelines for Public School Meals

(“Healthy Foods Find Friends at School,” signonsandiego.com, April 28, 2006)

The pizza served for lunch at Del Rio Elementary in Oceanside, Calif., with the whole grain crust and fresh orange wedges on the side, is part of a pilot program that has cafeteria workers serving dishes surpassing calorie, sugar and fat mandates set by the state and federal governments for school meals. “Everybody’s, like, healthy now,” commented second-grader Amber Castillo. “They got, like, all the sugar out of our food, and gave us healthy stuff so we don’t get stomachaches.” The healthier menu is expected to boost test scores and reduce behavior problems and, in the long run, curb childhood obesity and related diseases. Del Rio nurse Jeannie Isbell says “the kids seem to be enjoying the changes. There’s much less food waste.” If the program is successful, it might be expanded to other schools, but currently it has a higher cost (almost 20 percent) per student meal. “We want to see the effect of all of this – whether students are paying more attention in class, whether they’re learning more and whether the kids like it,” Vino Mitra, Oceanside Unified School District child nutrition director, said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20060428-9999-1mc28healthy.html

21. California: Fresno Schools First in State to Adopt Wellness Policy

(“Fresno Unified Leads the Way in Wellness,” fresnobee.com, April 23, 2006)

Fresno Unified School District was the first California school system to approve a complete wellness policy with nutritional and fitness standards, required by federal law to be implemented by the 2006-07 school year. The new policy requires schools to offer nutrition education to students of all grades; require physical education that meets or exceeds legal standards; serve nutritional, reasonably-priced and age-appropriate portions of food; and provide an adequate time for students to eat their meals. Edie Jessup, a hunger and nutrition project coordinator for Fresno Metro Ministry, says many youngsters in Fresno are facing diabetes and other chronic diseases because they are overweight. Jessup was pleased with the policy approval, but said she would prefer the original, not softened, version of the document. The policy proposal originally called for banning school advertising of nonhealthy foods, but board members agreed to discourage the advertising, not prohibit it. The Board also insisted on two years of physical education in high school instead of the proposed four.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/12090461p-12842335c.html

22. New York County Staffs Four New Local Sites to Accept Food Stamp Applications

(“Rockland Provides Four New Locations to Apply for Food Stamps,” lohud.com, April 25, 2006)

Applying for food stamps has become a little easier for residents in Rockland, N.Y. The Rockland County Department of Social Services (DSS) has provided four new locations where benefit seekers can submit their applications and interview with social workers. In the past, residents had to travel to DSS’s main office in Ramapo, N.Y., to apply.

http://tinyurl.com/mz66m

23. Calls from Food Stamp Applicants in Michigan Forwarded to India

(“Calls to State Assistance Help Line Go to India,” lsj.com, April 20, 2006)

After Michiganians Gail and Howard Church lost their jobs, they decided to apply for food stamps, known in Michigan as the Bridge Card program. Gail has a health-related disability that prevents her from working. Howard lost his job after undergoing knee surgery, but now is recovered and looking for work, which is currently a daunting task for any unemployed person in Michigan. When Gail dialed the help line provided by the state Department of Human Resources (DHR), her call went to India. The DHR outsourcing started under the previous Michigan governor. In 2004, Gov. Jennifer Granholm ordered that Michigan-based job providers be given a preference when bidding on state contracts. Starting on May 20, the outsourced DHR jobs will return to Michigan.

http://tinyurl.com/povl5