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Food Stamps

• Food Stamp benefits should guarantee low-income families the means to purchase healthy foods (Hunger Report 2006, page 15).
  
  
• The Thrifty Food Plan must accurately reflect updated dietary recommendations and be consistent with food prices, so that healthful choices are available to low-income people (Hunger Report 2006, page 33)
  
  
• Simplify the application process.  States must be given incentives to streamline the application process (Hunger Report 2006, Page 37)
  
  
• The national nutrition programs hold the key, especially Food Stamps….To be truly effective in reducing food insecurity, the FSP needs to be improved.  One way to strengthen the program would be to increase the benefit to a level that would give all participants the means to achieve a healthy diet. (Hunger Report 2006, page 41)  Cross Reference:  Food Insecurity
  
  
• The national nutrition programs hold the key, especially Food Stamps….To be truly effective in reducing food insecurity, and the FSP needs to be improved.  One way to strengthen the program would be to increase the benefit to a level that would give all participants the means to achieve a healthy diet. (Hunger Report 2006, page 41)  Cross Reference:  Food Insecurity
  
  
• "We urge USDA to make the following changes to the proposed rule.
  • Ensure that Simplified Reporting and Transitional Food Stamps rules do not increase the paperwork burden on clients and/or states.
  • Do not complicate income and resource rules by adding countable items beyond what Congress explicitly outlined in the legislation.
  • Do not undermine the immigrant benefit restorations with burdensome sponsor deeming and liability rules.
  • Ensure that all proposed rules regarding standard deductions, standard utility allowances and homeless shelter allowances are as simple as possible and provide the maximum reach to potentially eligible clients" (June 15, 2004, Letter to USDA, BFW Sign-On Letters 2001-Present).
    
    
• "We are opposed to the creation of a food stamp block grant or a broad new waiver authority for the Food Stamp Program…the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) should not be cut or weakened…we therefore urge you to…

1)  oppose budget cuts to the Food Stamp Program and other national nutrition programs;

2)  protect the Food Stamp and other nutrition programs by insisting that budget conferees and Congressional leaders set the Agriculture Committee instruction at the smallest possible number, but no more than the Senate's $2.814 billion over five years;

3)  oppose any TANF reauthorization bill provisions that would include an optional block grant or new waiver authority" (April 7, 2005, FPWG Budget Resolution sign-on letter, BFW Sign-On Letters 2001-Present) Cross Reference:  Welfare Reform, Health Care

• The Food Stamp Program is one way the nation can make sure that people who work at least are able to feed their families (Hunger Report 2004, Page 58).
  
  
• To make dramatic progress toward reducing food insecurity, which the United States has pledged to cut to half its 1995 level by 2010…food stamps benefits must be increased; WIC must be funded as an entitlement program; eligibility restrictions that still remain from the 1996 welfare reform must be eliminated (some were eliminated in the 2002 Farm Bill); and federal summer food programs for children must be substantially expanded (Hunger Report 2004:  Side Bar: Page 9). Cross Reference:  Food Insecurity and WIC
  
• The following 10 recommendations would strengthen the Food Stamp Program so it could better serve those in need: 
  1. Shift food stamp goals.  States should be rewarded for creative service to their participants and for reducing the gap between those eligible and those receiving stamps.  Currently, states are rewarded primarily for low error rates;
  2. Increase food stamp benefits.  The program should be indexed for inflation, and household cars should be removed from the asset limitations;
  3. Restore low-income legal immigrants to the rolls;
  4. Restore low-income childless adults (ages 18 to 50) to uninterrupted benefits;
  5. Simplify the application process.  Shorten the forms, and experiment with such things as mailing, faxing or e-mailing applications and interviewing outside the office or by telephone.  Administrative office hours also should be more accessible to include early morning, evening, and weekend hours;
  6. Recertify once a year, not every three months as many states do;
  7. Design ways to combine food stamp and Medicaid application processes where appropriate;
  8. Emphasize outreach, locating eligible people through public service ads, in hospitals, schools and shopping malls;
  9. Provide TANF-leavers with six months of transitional food stamps;
  10. and Retain the Food Stamp Program as a federal entitlement program and oppose efforts to move the system to state block grants (Hunger Report 2002, Side Bar: Page 46).
      
      
• Policies especially should target low-income Americans, who are at higher risk of becoming overweight or obese.  The connection between poverty, food insecurity and obesity must be realized, and insufficiencies in our federal safety net programs, such as the meager, monthly food stamp allowance, must be addressed.  Larger grocery stores and farmers markets that offer a wide variety of highly nutritious foods also must become available in low-income neighborhoods.  Cities also should make low-income neighborhoods safer and provide more sidewalks, bike paths and alternatives to cars (Hunger Report 2003, Side Bar: Page 55) Cross Reference:  Overnutrition (obesity), Food Insecurity, and Nutrition Programs.

See Super-waiver, H.R. 4737 and Block Grant.

• In a letter to Sen. Harkin (Chair) and Sen. Lugar (Ranking Minority Member) on the Senate Committee on Agriculture: "We are strongly opposed to both…proposals because they would undermine the national nutrition safety net, as well as allow the Executive Branch to reverse policy Congress just completed as a part of the Farm Bill…We ask for your help…to guard against the superwaiver and specifically its impact on the Food Stamp Program and against the five-state food stamp block grant" (June 7, 2002, BFW Sign-On Letters 2001-Present) Cross Reference: National Nutrition Programs,  Food Stamps
  
  
• In a letter to Representative Collin C. Peterson, BFW requested the following: "…we urge you to support the Senate's Nutrition Title which includes:
  • Restoration of food stamp eligibility for legal immigrants, and
  • Improvement of eligibility standards that will especially help families with high housing costs and families who are transitioning off welfare" (Letter, March 7, 2002, BFW Letters <not sign-on letters> 1998-present).
    
    
• In a letter to President George Bush: "As your Administration negotiates an economic stimulus package, we urge you to give the highest priority to the needs of low-income people.  Specifically, we ask you to recommend:
  
  • increased funding for the Food Stamp Program,
  • increased funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and
  • a two-step, $1.50 increase in the federal minimum wage.

Increasing the minimum wage and strengthening the Food Stamp Program and WIC will directly and quickly return money to the economy (October 18, 2001, BFW Sign-On Letters 2001-Present) Cross Reference: WIC, Employment

• In a letter to a senator, BFW stated its priorities for 2001:
  • "Secure at least $1 billion above existing foreign assistance for sub-Saharan Africa to be used for effective poverty-focused development;
  • Restore food stamp eligibility for all low-income legal immigrants in the United States;
  • Increase the federal minimum wage" (Letter, February 22, 2001, BFW Letters <not sign-on letters> 1998-Present).

Cross Reference:  Development Assistance, Welfare Reform, Employment (International and Domestic)

• Nutrition and Work Supports:  BFW "urges you to:
  • Restore food stamps to all legal immigrants…
  • Increase the federal minimum wage.  Inflation has taken a toll on the last minimum wage increase that Congress passed in 1996.  Bread for the World supports a $1.50 increase in the minimum wage implemented over three years" (letter, February 22, 2001, BFW Letters 1998-Present). 

• The U.S. Congress should strengthen the Food Stamp and other federal nutrition program, and improve outreach so that these programs may serve all needy people (Hunger Report 2000, Page 39).

• Congress should increase the value of the Thrifty Food Plan by 10 percent, especially for the poorest families.  Congress should also restore food stamps to the 685,000 low-income legal immigrants in need of food who are still denied access to the Food Stamp Program (Hunger Report 2000, Page 39).

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