This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 1, 2009 - In his research into poverty in the United States, Washington University Professor Mark R. Rank runs into all kinds of numbers that are far from uplifting:
- Half of all Americans get food stamps at some time in their lives before the age of 20.
- Nearly 25 percent of American children will be in households that receive food stamps for five or more years during their childhood.
- For African-American children, 90 percent will be in a household that gets food stamps, compared with 37 percent of white children.
- For children with single parents, 91 percent will be in a home that receives food stamps, compared with 37 percent of children in two-parent families.
But one more statistic that might at first seem to trump all those in the bad news category -- 98 percent -- is actually being held up as a reason for Missouri to be proud. It leads the nation in getting food stamps to all but 2 percent of those who are eligible.
"That really caught me by surprise," said Rank, who is a professor of social welfare at the university's George Warren Brown School of Social Work. "Over a long period of time, the percentage of folks who are eligible for the program and actually get the program has averaged 50, 60, 65 percent.
"Over the last few years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has really made an attempt to pull in more folks who are eligible, so maybe it's more like 65 percent. To get 98 percent of the people who are eligible into the program, I've never heard of that. Usually, we're more bringing up the rear than being in the front on something like that."
(Apparently, Rank's surprise was well-founded. Later reports found that Missouri's 98 percent record was miscalculated.)
FOOD STAMPS HAVE MISSOURI ROOTS
The food stamp program often is cited as one of the nation's more efficient ways to help low-income families improve their lives. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the program into law in 1964, he praised the persistence of Rep. Leonor K. Sullivan, who represented south St. Louis for 12 terms, for pushing for the assistance for so long.
It's now known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , or SNAP, funded by the federal government through the USDA and administered by the states.
To determine whether they are eligible for assistance, families can go online to work through a detailed checklist that takes into account resources, income, employment, age, disability and more.
Given the recent economic hard times, the program has become a crucial part of the efforts of many families to cover the basics and get food on the table, said Ruth Ehresman, director of health and budget policy for the Missouri Budget Project.
"The bulk of people who are receiving food stamps just are not able to make ends meet," she said. "It's a good thing for the families in this area and a good thing for the state. It shows that government programs can be run efficiently and are being run efficiently."
One of the program's biggest strengths, Rank said, is how widespread the coverage can be.
"The thing about the food stamp program that's unique is that it's available to all kinds of people," he said. "A lot of social safety nets are targeted to a particular population, like single moms or people with disabilities. In the food stamp program, you can be married or single, older or younger. All these folks can apply to one of the few programs that's quite universal in its reach. That's one of the reasons why the program is so important.
"It's also targeted for food and nutrition, so that's what the dollars are spent on. We know that folks going hungry, particularly kids going hungry, really creates problems, particularly physical health kinds of problems. For every dollar you spend, you can save three or four dollars down the road."
SO WHY IS MISSOURI DOING WELL?
Missouri's success rate of reaching 98 percent of eligible recipients isn't easily explained, particularly when it is compared with what most consider to be a much worse record in another poverty program -- Medicaid.
Scott Rowson, a spokesman for the Department of Social Services, has a few clues about why food stamps are getting to the people who need them while health care may not be.
"I think it probably boils down to a combination of two things -- the ease with which people can apply and the speed with which we respond," he said.
Rowson noted that Missourians can apply for food stamps in any county, not just where they live. Applications can be submitted online, by fax, by mail or in person, and pre-screening helps families determine whether they are eligible in the first place.
Federal law requires that states have to handle applications within 30 days, Rowson said, but in Missouri the average is 10 days. The state actually received a bonus of $4.3 million -- the sixth straight year it received such a performance award -- because it operates at such a high level, he said.
The money helps to offset some costs required to achieve such a quick turnaround, he said. Missouri has about 2,000 eligibility specialists working in the program, and so far the state's budget cuts have not hit very hard, with personnel reductions coming through attrition and retirements.
The result, Rowson said, is that Missouri families who need help can be confident it will be there.
"This isn't something that they don't have to have," he said. "Everyone has to put food on the table for their families, so it's good that people can count on that in a time of need.
"When you’re talking about food, it’s an immediate, tangible thing. You have to answer that three times a day. Health insurance may not have that immediacy. Also, the application process is a little bit more complicated, and some of the applications do get rejected because they are not filled out correctly." {C}{C}{C}
By contrast to the food stamp program, where the money comes from Washington, Medicaid is paid for by the state to a certain level, and when the budget is tight, benefits suffer, noted Bill Siedhoff, director of the Department of Human Services for St. Louis and a former head of the Department of Family Services for the state of Missouri.
"It depends on how much the state is willing to contribute that determines the benefit levels," he said.
But even with food stamps, said Rank and others, no one should get the idea that help from the government is wiping out the problem altogether. Most times, it's a stopgap at best.
"In America, it's kind of sink or swim and you're on your own," Rank said. "There's not a whole lot out there to protect people from poverty. The way I look at it, it's an indicator of poverty and food insecurity that so many people have to turn to that program.
"The fact that this is getting into the hands of kids is really important. But it's not nearly enough, and people tend to run out in the third week from their food stamp allotment."
Added Ehresman: "It certainly makes families less poor, and it's helpful in getting families the ability to meet nutritional needs. But the average benefits are not so high. This is not a Cadillac program that will take families out of poverty."