Massachusetts Achieves Significant Gains in Food Stamp Participation
On Wednesday, July 23, the Boston Globe featured a story about the fastest-growing food stamp program in the nation: the Massachusetts story. The unprecedented spike in enrollment speaks to both the renewed strength of the program, and the sad reality facing working families and individuals who are unable to meet the growing costs of their basic needs without support.
Nationally, Massachusetts ranked 50th and 51st in food stamp participation between 2000 and 2003, and was 48th in 2004. The decline in participation is attributed to many factors including the aggressive implementation of welfare reform, and a plethora of administrative barriers ranging from lost application documents to poor customer service at Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) offices. As a result, Massachusetts residents have been consistently losing millions of federal dollars each year, and the recovery of these funds helps support our most vulnerable citizens during economic crises.Unfortunately, not everyone agrees.
Recent improvements to the food stamp application are very timely in light of the current economy, and will ensure that more eligible households get access to this valuable support. However, according to 2006 caseload data, there are still over 210,000 individuals in Massachusetts living below 130% of the federal poverty level who could be eligible for food stamps, but are not receiving the benefit. This gap results in a loss of approximately $200 million federal nutrition dollars to the Commonwealth. In a time when food prices are soaring, and food pantries are reporting higher-than-ever demand from a broader spectrum of clients, it is paramount that we reach full participation.
The simplified food stamp application process acknowledged in the Globe's article emerges as the result of an extraordinary coalition effort, and its exemplary partnership with the DTA. I would like to highlight the work of the Food Stamp Improvement Coalition, led by Pat Baker from the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, which includes representatives from diverse community based organizations, federal, state and local government, who have committed the last eight years to eliminating barriers to this valuable nutrition program. The FS Improvement Coalition has worked from the ground up collecting data and testimony, researching best practices, doing outreach, advocating, making recommendations to the administration, and assisting on the implementation of new protocols.
There remains a lot of work to do to ensure full program participation and, as food costs continue to soar, we must also be concerned about how the modest benefit levels will not be sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of eligible participants.
FS Improvement Coalition
Dear Anonymous,
Thanks for sharing your accolades for the FS Improvement Coalition and Pat Baker's leadership. I think that, most importantly, the successes of this coalition effort speak to the value of collaboration and how much more can be accomplished when we come together to address challenges in our community. We should learn from this model and replicate it in support of other issues.
Your comments about healthy eating and the impact on well-being must also be highlighted. The increasing cost of food (in particular healthy food), the stagnating food stamp benefit levels, and the notorious unavailability of healthy food choices in poor urban areas, force low-income individuals to make choices that jeopardize their overall health.
A family's food budget is usually determined by what is left over after all other bills are paid off. The buying power of this "disposable income" is shrinking rapidly with the hikes in utilities, fuel, and food. This is another alarming issue at the top of anti-hunger advocates' minds, including the FS Improvement Coalition.
Food Stamp Coalition: chaired by Pat Baker
It has been an extreme pleasure in working closely with Pat Baker, and the other staff members of MLRI on increasing the access to FS benefits for so many clients, both individuals and families.
So many families express appreciation in being able to access extra buying power to feed their families, without having to feel intimidated or be-litted by the system. We also need to encourage and engage families in the health benefits of using there additional purchasing power to buy, healthy foods, that will impact the health and well-being of their entire family unit. Empowering the food purchaser to make wiser choices in-turn, possibily lowering the increase of childhood obesity.
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