Food stamp use continues to rise
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By Nancy Hicks
Sharon Cronin doesn't need a state report to know the number of families getting food stamps has been going up.
Cronin feels the growth in her work. A veteran frontline worker for Health and Human Services, Cronin has seen her food stamp caseload climb from about 75 households during the prosperous days of the late 1990s to about 100 families currently.
In fact, the number of Nebraska households using food stamps hit an all-time high last fall and is still climbing, despite an improving economy.
This growing food stamp caseload during an economic recovery may just be a natural lag between general recovery and its effect on poverty, according to HHS leaders.
Or it may reflect a disconnect between this recovery and any economic benefit to low-income Americans, according to advocates for families living in poverty.
"We don't see it as a lagging indicator. We see it as a revealing indicator, revealing that the economy is not reaching down and boosting the income of those at the bottom, " said Milo Mumgaard, executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest.
"The economic opportunities are not reaching down and pulling people out of poverty," he said.
Cronin, who helps people with the food stamp application process in the Lincoln office, agrees with that assessment.
"We are just seeing more and more people coming in who are working," she said.
"They are working. They have jobs. But they still meet the eligibility requirements.
"Its very hard to make ends meet."
The new food stamp card also has erased some of the grocery line stigma and may have encouraged more seniors to get food stamp help, Cronin said.
People now use a card, which looks much like a credit card, for food stamps, rather than coupons.
A total of 49,037 Nebraska households used the federal food stamp program in May, a record high, according to Mike Harris, an administrator with food stamp and other poverty programs.
Nebraska's previous record high, 46,240 households, came in April 1993.
And food stamp household numbers have stayed above the previous record since October 2003.
The federally funded food stamp program provides monthly help to families who make less than 130 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That is $1,994 a month in gross income for a family of four.
U.S. citizens and legal immigrants are eligible for the help, which can range from as little as $10 a month for a single person with an income near the maximum to hundreds of dollars a month for a low-income family with children.
Individuals and families with large checking or savings accounts or very expensive cars are not eligible for help.
Younger individuals or couples with no children qualify for only limited help - up to six months out of a 36-month period.
Poverty statistics, like food stamp and Aid to Dependent Children numbers, generally rise and fall with the economy, according to Harris.
But there is often a lag.
When the economy heads south, the poverty statistics usually follow it a few months later, he said.
So Harris isn't sure what the consistent upward march of food stamp households means. Does it indicate that the recovery isn't helping low-income families? Or is it simply that lag time?
"We are anticipating that the growth (in food stamp and ADC use) will slow down," he said.
"It does appear that the economy is getting better, but the statistics are not reflecting that yet," he said.
Other states, including many of Nebraska's neighbors, also have steady growth in food stamp usage, he said.
The number of households using both the food stamp and the Aid to Dependent Children programs was highest in 1993, during the previous recessionary period.
The caseloads bottomed out in 1999 and 2000 as the country's economy served up plenty of jobs, then started rising in late 2001 as Nebraska followed the nation into the most recent recession.
But ADC numbers have not increased as dramatically as food stamp use and have not hit previous highs.
ADC caseloads hit an all-time high of 17,482 in April 1993, then dropped to 10,088 by June 2000. In April, 12,536 Nebraska families received ADC benefits.
ADC provides some assistance for families with little or no income. And the caseloads reflect the effort in the late 1990s to provide training and encourage people to go to work, Harris said.
Other states have experienced similar slow growth of ADC caseloads during the recent recession, he said.
The food stamp program is available to the working poor. And the food stamp numbers are likely an indicator of the widening economic gap, said Scott Young, director of the Lincoln Food Bank.
His perception is that "the healthy economy is growing, but the unhealthy economy isn't."
"I'm hearing from my peers in human services that things haven't improved for low-income people," Young said.
"Even though the overall economy may be improving, people are still out of jobs. They still aren't making enough money, even as prices rise for gas, for milk, for utilities."
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7150 or nhicks@;journalstar.com.
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