SNAP and Food Insecurity

Posted on January 9, 2014 by admin

• Food stamp fraud and errors are at historic low, while need is high, USDA report shows, By Stephen Koff, January 3, 2014, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “With the congressional food fight over benefits for the poor about to resume, the federal government quietly released a report on New Year’s Eve that suggests there is still a high need for food stamps. The statistical report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, also shows that despite partisan rhetoric about food stamp fraud and abuse, a record low rate of food stamps are given out in error – 3.42 percent in 2012 when all errors were accounted for. But only 2.77 percent of errors involved overpayment, including fraudulent applications for benefits that were approved and subsequently caught. The rest – 0.65 percent – occurred in cases where the government gave fewer benefits, not more, than the recipient was entitled to…”
• Could your family live on $1.40 per meal?, By Luisa Deprez and Sandy Butler, December 27, 2013, Bangor Daily News: “In November, Maine lost $26 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps. The cut, which comes because of the end of the stimulus’s temporary financial boost, affects 251,000 individuals — about 19 percent of the state’s population. That’s about one in five of our neighbors. While this loss hits individuals and families the hardest, the state suffers as well: Every $1 of SNAP benefits equates to $1.70 of economic activity. As harsh as this cut was, much larger cuts threaten this vital program as Congress finishes its work on the Farm Bill. The House has proposed slashing $40 billion from the program and the Senate $4 billion, a smaller but still devastating amount…”
• Demand for food stamps soars as cuts sink in and shelves empty, By Karen McVeigh, December 23, 2013, The Guardian: “For Denise Acosta, it was being laid off for the first time. For Diana Martinez, it was the death of her mother, leaving her as the sole carer for her severely disabled younger brother. For Johnny Hill, it was having to take responsibility, a year away from retirement, for her two young granddaughters. Each of these hard-working women from San Antonio, Texas, have fallen victim to circumstances that turned their lives upside down, robbing them of their full-time jobs, the paychecks they once enjoyed and, in Acosta’s case, her home. Their stories vary, but they all belong to a growing group, America’s working poor, for whom the journey from getting by to hunger can be brutally short…”
• Food stamps need increases, but donations have declined, By Mike Wiser, January 6, 2014, The Gazette: “Steve Mohling was going over a shopping list in his head as he pushed a cart packed with eight gallons of milk through the aisles of the Northeast Iowa Food Bank in Waterloo. The 45,359-square-foot facility is the newest addition to the state’s network of food banks. It’ll serve an estimated 40,000 people in a 16-county area each year. But the Northeast Iowa Food Bank — as with the entire network — is under pressure from rising client base that’s only expected to grow when Congress returns from its winter break and likely cuts food aid in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in the farm bill by $8 billion…”