Food stamp usage grows 54 percent
“We’re in line with what’s happening nationally, and participation nationally has increased,” said Richard Dobbs, director of food stamp policy for the Tennessee Department of Human Services. “The last couple of months we have not seen the increases we had earlier this year, and I’m hoping that is a sign the economy is stabilizing.”
The food stamp program is funded entirely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture but administered by states through their county social services departments.
Gov. Phil Bredesen said he sees a connection between the growth of food stamp use and growth in the state’s Families First welfare program. Bredesen had to include an additional $77 million in the state budget for the year beginning July 1 to adjust for growth in Families First rolls.
“The best answer I’ve heard so far is that we are losing some of the marginal jobs that have traditionally been the stepping stones from being on welfare and unemployed to more remunerative parts of the work force,” Gov. Bredesen told the Nashville bureau of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Some 228,133 Tennessee families received $38.4 million in food stamp benefits in May 2001, while 350,510 households got $66.8 million in May 2004. The average family on food stamps has 2.3 members.
The average monthly food stamp benefit is about $172, and the actual amount varies depending on the income of the recipients, Dobbs said. A family of two or more grossing $1,313 a month or less would qualify for food stamps under federal guidelines.
Bill Fox, an economist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, described most families receiving state and federal aid as the “working poor” who need a little help to make ends meet.
“Generally, the stereotypes aren’t borne out by the data we see,” Fox said. “It’s the working poor, generally small families, maybe a mother with one or two children who is working or trying to go to school.”
Dobbs said food stamp recipients include “an equally large population of the elderly poor.”
“Unfortunately, there is a large group of the elderly who can’t survive on a small Social Security benefit, and they’re of the age where they can’t work anymore,” he said.
Dobbs said revised federal eligibility standards and improved outreach programs by state and local governments also have increased participation.
“During the last four years, there were changes to the program that made it easier to qualify and retain eligibility for food stamps, particularly for the working poor,” he said. “Other than that, we do have more outreach contractors who do a lot of work getting the word out about the program.”
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On the ‘Net:
Department of Human Services: http://www.state.tn.us.humanserv/foodstamps.htm