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Food stamp recipients in the United States pinched by high food prices
1 day ago
CHICAGO - Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight,
braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her
food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago.
For days, Brown said, she has been turning cans of "whatever we got in
the cabinet" into breakfast, lunch and dinner for her children, ages one
and three.
"Ain't got no food left. The kids are probably hungry," said Brown, a
23-year-old single mother who relies heavily on her $312 monthly
allotment of food stamps - a ration adjusted just once a year, in
October.
This is what the skyrocketing cost of food looks like at street level:
Poor people whose food stamps don't buy as much as they once did rushing
into a store in the dead of night, filling shopping carts with cereal,
eggs and milk so their kids can wake up on the first day of the month to
a decent meal.
"People with incomes below the poverty threshold are in dire straits
because not only are food prices increasing, but the food stamps they
are receiving have not increased," said Dr. John Cook, an associate
professor at Boston University's medical school who has studied the food
stamp program, particularly how it affects children.
On the South Side of Chicago, people like Brown wait for the stroke of
midnight, when one month gives way to another and brings a new allotment
of food stamps.
Dennis Kladis began opening his family-owned One Stop Food & Liquors
once a month at midnight nine months ago to give desperate families a
chance to buy food as soon as possible.
"I'm telling you, by the end of the month they're just dying to get back
to the first," said Kladis, who has watched other area stores follow his
lead. "Obviously, they are struggling to get through the month."
Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, which runs
the food stamp program, said there is only so much the aid can do.
"Food stamps were designed to be a supplement to the food budget," she
said. They "were never intended to be the entire budget."
As prices rise, the number of Americans relying on food stamps has also
climbed by 6.1 per cent in the past year, increasing from 26.1 million
in February 2007 to 27.7 million in February this year. The sputtering
economy, persistent unemployment and the mortgage crisis have all
contributed to the increase. The Agriculture Department expects the
overall number of participants to reach 28 million next year.
For Lynda Wheeler, who receives $281 in food stamps each month, the
rhythm of life has been one of shopping for food, running out of food
and then turning to churches, food pantries and friends for help. And
all the while, she is doing things like cutting milk with water to make
it last a bit longer.
"You get it on the first and it runs out by the 14th and 15th," said
Wheeler, a single mom who brought her 14-year-old son and two-year-old
daughter shopping at midnight with the Link card, the Illinois version
of food stamps.
Because food stamp allotments are adjusted every fall based on the
federal food inflation rate, recipients are months away from getting any
relief. But even when that relief comes, advocates said, it won't come
close to keeping pace with rising costs.
The consumer price index for food rose five per cent last year, the
highest gain in nearly two decades. It is especially grim news for the
poor.
Start with milk. Between March 2007 and this year, milk jumped from just
over $3 for about four litres to nearly $3.80, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the same period, eggs climbed from
about $1.60 a dozen to $2.20. Bread, chicken and tomatoes are all more
expensive than last year.
Just last summer, the maximum food stamp payment - $542 a month for a
family of four with a gross annual income of no more than $26,856 - was
enough to cover the USDA's "thrifty food plan," a bare-bones diet that
meets minimal nutritional needs. Studies show that allotment now falls
about $25 short, Cook said.
And just getting to the store is a lot more expensive. Since October,
the cost of gas has shot up.
If the USDA pulls $1.7 billion from a contingency fund of $6 billion
this year to support the food stamp program, as it expects to do, that
would be the largest withdrawal since $2 billion was pulled out after
hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The U.S. Senate recently passed a five-year, $300-billion farm bill that
includes $200 billion for nutrition programs such as food stamps and
emergency food aid for the needy. Daniel said it was too early to say
how that will affect benefits to food stamp recipients, and she knew of
no provision in the bill to make the annual adjustment before the
fall.
Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition, said
she's seeing people more frantic for food than ever.
"The level of desperation is just frightening,
calling, saying they have no idea what they are going to do."
But even as demand is rising, many food pantries across the United
States have been forced to cut back on the amount of food given to
individual families because higher fuel costs and commodity prices have
sliced into private donations to the pantries.
For now, many of the needy, including many in Kladis' store pushing
carts laden with soda pop, bags of cookies and chips - much of it
cheaper than healthier food - are doing what they can to stretch their
shrinking buying power.
"The bottom line is, a mother trying to feed her kids is not really
picky about what she puts in their bellies," said Dan Gibbons, executive
director of the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation. "She just wants them
full."
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