Food stamps: shadows from the past; the shape of the future

It's 1933, the days of the Great Depression. The country reels, struggling to recover from economic hardships unlike any it has seen.

In the cities, factories shut down. In the country, fields have dried to dust plains. Farmers' lands are blown away in black clouds carrying the best of the earth and the future with them. Jobs are lost. Homes are lost. People are lost.

But the country, and the country's people, are resilient. Communities organize to meet their neighbors' needs. The government steps in, working to match needs. And, on an unprecedented scale, the government begins buying surplus food from farmers and giving it to needy people.

Truckloads and trainloads crisscross the country carrying food to hungry families. The new food distribution program provides vital help, but it also has problems. Many needy families walk 2 or 3 miles to food sites or wait hours for food trucks.

Americans search for a better way to meet the needs of the hungry. On May 19, 1938, Mabel McFiggin stands in Joseph Multolo's food store in Rochester, New York.

With a handful of coupons, she buys foods that the government has designated as surplus. With her coupons, she has a variety of foods to choose from, including butter, eggs, flour, cornmeal, fresh fruit, prunes, and dried beans. A better way of meeting America's food needs has been found. Expanded program is still thriving

Today, more than 19 million people each month participate in the Food Stamp Program, which has grown and changed since its early days.

Now expanded to every county in the country, the program continues to help people through difficult times. And, today's food stamp shoppers, unlike Mabel McFiggin, can buy almost any food item with their coupons, since eligible foods are no longer limited to those in surplus.

In recent years, the program has continued to thrive. Its annual cost of $11.7 billion in fiscal year 1987 represents a 41 -percent increase from 1980 spending (or a 9-percent increase after adjusting for inflation). Reflecting a healthy economy and declining unemployment, food stamp participation is now trending downward from its all-time high of 22.6 million in March 1983.

Just as in the 1930's, Americans are still searching for better ways to meet the needs of their fellow Americans-ways that anticipate new technologies and the changing face of our society. In order to look at tomorrow's Food Stamp Program, we need to understand the program today. Who does it serve? Does it really help? Where do we go from here?

Food stamps succeed in reaching the needy

The Food Stamp Program, which first became available nationally in 1974, is one of the most well-known assistance programs in the country.

Statistics bear this out. Over the course of a year, nearly one in seven Americans will use food stamps during a time of economic hardship. Nearly 80 percent of the poor who may be eligible for the program turn to it for help. But while food stamps are widely available, many people have misconceptions about the program and the people who use it.

Contrary to popular belief, food stamp households tend to be small, predominantly white, and nearly onefifth have earned income. A 1985 study conducted by the Department of Agriculture showed that:

* Fifty-eight percent of food stamp recipients are either children or the elderly;

* Over half of all food stamp households contain only one or two people;

* Forty-nine percent of households are white, 37 percent are black, and 11 percent are of Hispanic origin.

But does the Food Stamp Program really accomplish its goal of alleviating hunger? There is significant evidence that it does.

Food stamps improve participants' diets

Nutritionally, food stamps make a difference. The latest Nationwide Food Consumption Survey found that 47 percent of food stamp households meet the recommended dietary allowance for 11 nutrients-which is essentially the same percentage found in the general population and significantly higher than low-income households who don't participate in the program.

Compared to nonparticipants, the survey found that food stamp households consume more food and a wider variety of food, including meat, poultry, fish, eggs, grain products, citrus fruits, and dark green vegetables.

In addition, food stamps directly improve the financial status of families under the poverty line. When the value of food stamp benefits is counted as income, the proportion of households with incomes below half the poverty line was reduced by twothirds.

Since 1983, USDA has been working on a national nutrition education project designed to help food stamp recipients stretch their food buying dollars and improve their nutrition knowledge.

Through the project, millions of copies of nutrition publications in both Spanish and English have been distributed to food stamp offices throughout the country. In addition, USDA has sponsored seminars and conferences to help local and state food stamp employees improve their nutrition knowledge so they, in turn, can teach food stamp recipients.

In 1988, USDA is moving its nutrition education commitment to food stamp recipients one step further. This year, the Department is working with the Ad Council and a major advertising agency in developing a national educational effort focusing on the relationship between food and health.

USDA will be promoting food and health messages through radio and television spots, newspaper ads, and bus posters. Among other things, the campaign will be designed to encourage food stamp recipients to seek information that will help them improve their eating and buying habits.

Looking toward the future

What's the shape of the Food Stamp Program of the future? As we look in one direction, high technology bursts on the scene.

Computers are already changing the way government agencies certify applicants and keep track of program information. In coming years, they may also change the way participants use their food stamp benefits. While Mabel McFiggin exchanged food coupons for commodities in 1938, in 1998 food stamp recipients may be using electronic benefit transfer systems to buy food.

Since 1984, a special project has been running in Reading, Pennsylvania. Under this project, food stamp recipients are provided an electronic benefits transfer card. When they buy their groceries, they present the card to the cashier, who runs it through a special terminal.

The terminal is connected by telephone to a central computer, which debits the recipient's food stamp account. The terminal then prints a receipt for the shopper for the purchase and provides the amount of the balance left in the food stamp account.

The system is popular with both recipients and retailers and is providing valuable data as we assess the future of food stamp delivery systems. Advantages of the system include no need for printed coupons (we now print 2 billion a year) and a greater potential for accountability and security of benefits for recipients.

Last fall, USDA took another step toward implementing innovative benefit delivery systems. The Department invited proposals for pilot projects which would electronically transfer benefits. States and cities invited to submit proposals by this coming July include: Los Angeles, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Other directions are also possible

There are other directions in which the Food Stamp Program may move in the future. One of the most interesting in its simplicity is termed "cashout." Under cash-out, food stamp benefits are converted into cash assistance which is provided to needy people without the complications of coupons or other delivery systems.

Under the Food Stamp Act, USDA has broad waiver authority to allow states to test innovative ways of improving the Food Stamp Program. Additional impetus has been provided by recent welfare reform initiatives generated by the White House and the establishment of the Low-income Opportunity Board, which was set up to coordinate and assist the development of local and state projects.

Addressing a convention of food retailers this past January, Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Anna Kondratas outlined both the electronic benefit transfer system and cash-out as options for the future of the Food Stamp Program.

Calling cash-ou"an alternative route to greater program simplicity and integrity," Kondratas noted that the concept has many adherents among welfare reformers.

"As we prepare for the future of federal food programs, we have multiple responsibilities," Kondratas said. "We have a responsibility to the needy to provide adequate nutrition, a responsibility to the taxpayers to use their money to its greatest benefit, and a responsibility to promoting selfsufficiency among the poor and providing a ladder out of poverty.

"It will be interesting to see which welfare reform direction will withstand the test of time."

article by Dianne Durant

COPYRIGHT 1988 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group