Millions forced to wait for food stamps benefits

Article

SAN ANTONIO – When Amanda Vaca's husband lost his job, the couple took stock of their finances and drew a startling conclusion: They could not afford to feed their four young children.

The recession has landed millions of hungry families in similar straits, forcing them to endure long waits for help buying basic groceries. A review by The Associated Press found that dozens of food-stamp programs in 39 states left at least a quarter of applicants waiting weeks or months for food aid, some in areas that were not particularly hard hit by the economic downturn.

Federal law requires applications for food stamps to be reviewed within 30 days of being filed, and even faster for the poorest families. Failure to do so can subject agencies to federal sanctions and lawsuits, but individual families are largely at the mercy of their local administrators.

A record 40 million people — one in eight Americans — now rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, the official name of the modern food stamp program, which began in 1961. The number of participating households increased by one-fifth in fiscal 2009, and many states' food-stamp rolls grew by a third or more.

Waiting months for food. I cant imagine how it would feel to wait a couple months for food. Im not sure how much food a family gets from food stamps, but I think it depends on the number of people in the family.

1 in 8 Americans are now on foodstamps the article says. 40 million, thats a lot of people. If the economy gets worse, im sure that number will rise.

I dont really have much to say about this, but I thought it would be some information to share.

[edit on 9-6-2010 by buni11687]

You cannot wait months for food.

By day 4-5 you will be robbing a grocery store or begging on the street. I promise.

If you "wait months" you will starve to death lol.

So the story is being exaggerated a bit.

Anyways, no one should rely on the government for hand outs. Otherwise you are as good as dead, just look at this story for your proof.

reply to post by buni11687

Families receiving SNAP assistance are expected to spend 30 percent of their monthly income on food. For this reason, SNAP allotments are calculated by multiplying your family's monthly income by .3. This number is then "subtracted from the maximum allotment for the household size to find the household's allotment," according to neighborhoodlink.com.

A single person can get a maximum monthly allotment of $200. A married couple can get as much as $365. The maximum allotment for a family of three is $526, and a family of four can receive $668. These amounts continue to increase exponentially up to a family of eight, which receives $1,202. According to the USDA, families larger than eight can get an extra $150 for each additional family member.

For example, a family of four earning $1,163 a month receives a monthly allotment of $319. This is because when its monthly income is multiplied by .3, it equals $349. When this amount is subtracted from the family's maximum monthly allotment of $668, you get a total SNAP allotment of $319.

SOURCE- www.ehow.com...

At the current prices of food, that's not enough to feed a Family.
Something needs to change.

i dont know who exactly is waiting most people i know start getting food stamps in a week after they apply

This is where tax free religous organizations should be put on the spot.

Can't get food stamps, call your local religious organization. The should, being tax free, pick up the slack!

Sounds right, yeah?

Go to the preacher man!

edit to add:

It might sound like I am being fecetious, but I did get help from the Catholics, after Katrina, with bills, food. I would say that everyone who is in dire straights, needs to line up in front of their local established religious organizations. For real.

[edit on 9-6-2010 by Blanca Rose]

reply to post by muzzleflash


People are waiting months just for the food assistance paperwork to go through. If the people didnt have anything to eat for months, im sure people would be robbing grocery stores and all that stuff. The food assistance offices are overloaded with paperwork and dont have enough people to process it all in time.

Working in a grocery store, I see at LEAST fifteen fat f*&#s a day come in and purchase a ton of ice cream, candy, energy drinks, and chips on foodstamps. Then they pull a fifty out of their wallet and buy a carton of cigs. And then, they load all of their unhealthy crap into a brand new car. Something needs to change. Allow healthy food for children, but adults should be able to fend for themselves. The foodstamp program was supposed to be a temporary program anyways! I also think that if we are going to give handouts, we should at least make drug-testing mandatory.

While I certainly feel sorry for folks who have a hard time putting food on the table, I feel it necessary to point out that this only adds to the nations growing debt problem.

Since it is an unconstitutional federal expenditure, it should be done away with.

Originally posted by buni11687
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

People are waiting months just for the food assistance paperwork to go through. If the people didnt have anything to eat for months, im sure people would be robbing grocery stores and all that stuff. The food assistance offices are overloaded with paperwork and dont have enough people to process it all in time.

That is just huge BS though.

They have more than enough workers, I have been to government offices I know how it works.

The government workers are LAZY and sit around talking all day, they hate working and avoid doing paperwork as much as possible.

They waste tons of time because they don't like "work".

Government offices are a perfect example of lazy bums. They get so cozy and safe in their "protected job" which they feel like nothing can take their job away now. So they start getting real lazy and begin to start thinking they are super important and powerful because of their stupid position in life.

Just saying.

The reason that paperwork is piling up is because these government employees are LAZY BUMS who should be FIRED and some hard working people should replace them at their job.



[edit on 9-6-2010 by muzzleflash]

Originally posted by State of Mind
Working in a grocery store, I see at LEAST fifteen fat f*&#s a day come in and purchase a ton of ice cream, candy, energy drinks, and chips on foodstamps. Then they pull a fifty out of their wallet and buy a carton of cigs. And then, they load all of their unhealthy crap into a brand new car. Something needs to change. Allow healthy food for children, but adults should be able to fend for themselves. The foodstamp program was supposed to be a temporary program anyways! I also think that if we are going to give handouts, we should at least make drug-testing mandatory.

No drug testing please lol. How about let's just stop handouts to adults 100% that way we won't have to infringe on their liberties?

I agree totally with your assessment of the food stamp abusers.

DID YOU KNOW you can buy Caviar with food stamps???? CAVIAR???!!!!

It is sooooo retarded. This world is terminally mentally ill.

reply to post by AccessDenied


"For example, a family of four earning $1,163 a month receives a monthly allotment of $319."

Wow, I didnt know the amount was that low. $319 for a family of 4 is not really enough food, especially with the prices nowdays. I could imagine the food the people buy is the cheapest/nonhealthy stuff, and then theres the people that buy all candy/icecream/junk food.

I forgot the name of the program where your brought food from an organization, but its similar to food stamps, except you dont go shopping yourself. Im not sure how healthy the food they give them is either. Ive heard that the food is pretty bad, and causes alot of people to become obese. Im not sure if thats true, but thats what a few people have told me.

When I applied for food stamps in August of last year, it was after that woman stole my money when she 'sold' me a mobile home that she didn't really own. I turned in all of the paperwork. Then I got letters in the mail denying it saying I didn't turn in the paperwork. I kept having to redo the paperwork, over and over again, handing in the same exact thing each time. FINALLY they worked the paperwork I kept turning in and I got food stamps in October. That's two months later.

And then when I went for recertification six months later, I turned in all of the paperwork. The worker "forgot to work" my case and I was cut off food stamps. I had to sit in the lobby all day on my birthday to demand it be taken care of. I was so ticked! Here I had a job and worked it, did all I was told, and lost it anyway. However, the worker can "forget" to work my case and still get to keep her job! While I was there, several other women were there for the exact same reason and I found out it happened to them every time! Many even had to take a day off work just to go in and get the problem fixed. That's a day they had to go without income to fix a problem because someone else "forgot" (her wording, not mine) to do her job.

So yes, it can take months for the workers to actually get around to working the cases. And you have to have proof of receiving food stamps to get help from the local food banks, so anyone who friviously gets turned down due to employee incompetence or is waiting weeks/months to receive help still won't get help from the local food banks. And yes, many people end up stealing food, etc for survival.

I have to go in for another recert next month and am dreading it. I still haven't found a job, so all of the information is the same. But someone will 'lose' the paperwork AGAIN or 'forget' to work the case AGAIN just like they do with numerous other cases. If I had a job doing that, I'd make sure the job was done right and that the job was actually done.

You should see how many people in California are getting onto different government welfare programs. Thankfully my family already has been the system for years. There is barely any work in California. The rent has gone way up, same with the bills and gas.

[edit on 25-7-2010 by Romantic_Rebel]

I don't understand the negative stigma surrounding food stamps.

They're not even known as that anymore but rather EBT cards or Step Up in some places. They were all that I could get when I lost my job last year (more my own fault).

You take what you get until you can get back on your feet.

I think that the anti-food stamps/anti-welfare crowd has never had either in their lives and they're readily conditioned by the fright-wing hate machine to despise both.

The food stamp program needs to be reformed. There should be no reason that people should pay at for-profit rates for food products with tax dollars. The corporations love this program though as they get rich from our tax dollars. The one benefit you get on food stamps is you can really stock your shelves with food and eat better than you ever could afford. The amount of money they give if spent correctly, not on meat items, can go a long way. Additionally taxes are not factored in at the check out stand so a person saves there as well.

reply to post by buni11687


First of all, no one can wait 'months' for food, they would starve to death. The article would be about people starving to death instead of waiting on their food stamps. And why in the hell would anyone keep waiting for them and not eat?

Food stamps are a hand up, but it is up to the reciepients to get off them and provide their families food. If you don't have a job, grow some food, go to foodbanks, souplines, ect. while you look for a job.

Soem of you are saying a family of 4 cannot eat on that amount of money, you must have lots of money, because most people do live on that much a month. Even if they don't use stamps.

I know of at least one family who even though they make good money, it isn't enough and they wind up buying food stamps, from the lazy dopeheads that get nearly 700 a month and sell all but around 250-300 dollars worth, to get their drugs.

My family budget for food is around 200 a month. It isn't easy to do, or to eat healthy at that amount, but we have to do it, and we grow our own veggies, that is a bonus.

We're having big problems here in Colorado also with the food stamp program, and it's from being overloaded. While the federal government is paying millions to repair roadways because they can put expensive signs up to brag about it, they are doing nothing about this. Hopefully the state fix expected in November doesn't break the system even more.

Colorado Social Workers Target Benefits System

DENVER (AP) ― Colorado social workers say that attempts to fix the state computer system blamed for delays in food stamps and other public assistance are making things worse.

The system installed in 2004 has a history of communications problems, crashes and failures, including overpayments and underpayments. New problems started last month as agencies' caseloads increased and the Colorado Benefits Management System reached the limits of its capacity.

Social workers sent a letter July 12 to state officials saying that changes to the system are causing new problems.

State officials say they are writing a response. A long-term fix is expected to be completed in November.

The system serves about 703,000 people, up 25 percent from about 561,000 in 2004. It processes more than 4 million transactions daily.

Man some of you need to relax. If your tax dollars weren't going to help feed people it would be wasted on some other crackpot scheme. However I've seen too many people use foodstamps in ways it definately wasn't intended.

But not everyone is like that. I remember years ago my dad lost his job and at the time we were down to 600 a month for awhile. That was enough to pay the rent, electricity, water and like heat. Without foodstamps and heating assistance we really would've had it hard. We did hunt, grow our own food as well. But the foodstamps really helped pick up the slack for stuff to go along with that meat.

That's been quite a few years though, never want to go through that again. I have a feeling there are plenty of people in the same kind of situation who would give almost anything to be out of it.

But I see plenty of people just happily collecting food stamps, trading them for things like drugs and cigarettes and whatnot. Not to mention like others have said using them to buy carts full of junk food.

[edit on 25-7-2010 by Judohawk]

I agree the story is highly exaggerated. I have never seen someone who truly needed the benefits not walk right out of aid office without them.

In my state, IL, the only apps that do need to be reviewed are the ones where people have money in various bank accounts and wish not withdraw (IRA's, CD's, etc).

If you have no or little money in proportion to your basic living expenses, you walk out with government food benefits, and you'll receive a letter if you received medical.