Food Stamps

As an organization working to end childhood hunger in Maryland, Share Our Strength appreciates your editorial about the merits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("Food stamp recipients are the new welfare queens," Dec. 4). Three-quarters of all SNAP benefits go to families with kids. Over time, SNAP has proven to be efficient, effective and fraud is at a historic low. Critical federal child nutrition programs like SNAP and school breakfast are vital to the well being of America's children.

So, gas is going up to $5 per gallon, probably more. Hey, this could be a real problem. In fact, it's a huge problem for the hard-working Americans, especially those in the lower middle class. We have to do something about it. An example: Joe Doaks drives his SUV 20 miles one-way to work, 40 miles total. He gets 10 miles per gallon so he burns up four gallons just back-and-forth to work. At $5 per gallon, that's $20 and climbing. And he's not giving up his SUV. The problem is, he only makes $10 an hour, no benefits, so he will be working two hours a day just to cover his transportation costs.

The nation's food stamp program is an essential part of the American safety net. Why? Because people can't be productive - in school, at work or looking for work - if they are hungry and fearful about not having enough food to feed their families. The program serves 46 million people, almost as many people as Medicare. And that's despite the fact that more than one-third of those eligible for the benefit are not receiving it. If all those who qualified for food stamps enrolled in the program, it would include 20 percent to 25 percent of Americans.

Just five years ago, a Harford County family of one adult, one school-age child and one preschooler needed an annual income of about $54,000 to make ends meet. That family today would need nearly $62,000, a new study shows. That number covers basic costs, including housing, child care, transportation, taxes and miscellaneous costs, according to the Self-Sufficiency Study compiled by researchers at the University of Washington School of Social Work, in cooperation with the Maryland Community Action Partnership.

In Baltimore City, 1 in 8 families with young children are "food insecure," and 20 percent of all residents live in poverty. More than half a million Marylanders get help affording food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In fact, SNAP, or what we used to call food stamps, enrolled 45 million people nationwide this year, a leap from 25 million in 2008. Shouldn't SNAP participants in Baltimore - or other cities - be able to spend their SNAP dollars on nutritious, locally produced food?

Five months into a court order requiring the state to speed up delivery of food stamps and medical benefits to low-income residents, Department of Human Resources officials say more Marylanders are getting those services at a quicker pace. As of the end of May, the compliance rate for food stamps was about 89 percent, up 6 percentage points from the beginning of February, according to the DHR. The compliance rate for the Maryland Children's Health Insurance program was 85.7 percent, up 6 percentage points; and the rate for the Temporary Cash Assistance program was 93.8 percent, up about 5 percentage points since February.

GOP candidate Newt Gingrich announced last week he was running for president and, hours later, he was accused of being a racist -- or at least of using coded racist slurs  due to his calling President Barack Obama "the food stamp president. "  (See Joan Walsh's article in Salon here for additional details.)  NBC's David Gregory confronted Gingrich about his use of the phrase on "Meet the Press" Sunday. Here's how Gingrich responded:  "That's bizarre," he said.

Regarding your editorial about Newt Gingrich's remarks on race, I am writing to thank you for confirming what I was thinking ("Newt the demagogue," Jan. 20). I knew I was not crazy. It is amazing that in 2012 we are still having conversations about racism. I thought we had made a lot of progress, but the current GOP race has shown otherwise. What Mr. Gingrich and his wife paid in federal taxes last year some people won't see in 30 years of working. I am not condemning him and his wife, but they just don't get it. Nor does Mitt Romney, with his overseas accounts.

The state's Department of Human Resources was officially awarded $1.4 million Friday from the federal government for increasing by 44 percent the number of people receiving food stamps. Maryland enrolled more participants for food stamps than any other state for the one-year period ending in September 2008, and has more than 527,000 people receiving the federal benefits. Human Resources Secretary Brenda Donald credited the increase to targeted outreach effort by the department's workers, including a focus on the elderly and the homeless who were eligible but not receiving assistance.

Three months after a judge ordered the state to speed up delivery of food stamps and medical benefits to low-income Maryland residents, the problem has worsened, court filings show. At the end of January, the state's Department of Human Resources was operating at an 81 percent compliance rate processing those requests, down 2.5 percentage points from the previous month, according to papers filed in Baltimore Circuit Court. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the decline shows that the state - which faces a year-end deadline to improve services - continues to struggle.

A family of three - one adult, one preschooler and one school-age child - in Anne Arundel County needs an annual income of $67,865 just to meet its basic needs, a new report shows. That income requires a salary of $32.13 an hour when the adult works full time - more than four times the Maryland minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and nearly $5 more than the $27.32-an-hour wage required for the same family in 2007. These rising costs, combined with the effects of the recession, have resulted in a flood of new applications in Anne Arundel County for assistance programs, such as temporary cash assistance, which provides cash to needy families with dependent children, and the food supplement program, formerly known as food stamps - both federal programs administered by the state.

The nation's food stamp program is an essential part of the American safety net. Why? Because people can't be productive - in school, at work or looking for work - if they are hungry and fearful about not having enough food to feed their families. The program serves 46 million people, almost as many people as Medicare. And that's despite the fact that more than one-third of those eligible for the benefit are not receiving it. If all those who qualified for food stamps enrolled in the program, it would include 20 percent to 25 percent of Americans.

January's increase in hiring is good news, but it masks a bigger and more disturbing story -- the continuing downward mobility of the American middle class. Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy -- hospital orderlies and nursing aides, secretaries and temporary workers, retail and restaurant. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain working only because they've agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. Others are settling for jobs that pay less than the jobs they've lost.

To deny that Newt Gingrich's comments on food stamps weren't implicitly racist is breathtakingly naive ("Newt the demagogue," Jan. 20). Of course that's what Mr. Gingrich was up to in South Carolina, tossing red meat to the Republican voters. Right on to The Sun for pointing out the obvious. Charles Rammelkamp, Baltimore

Regarding your editorial about Newt Gingrich's remarks on race, I am writing to thank you for confirming what I was thinking ("Newt the demagogue," Jan. 20). I knew I was not crazy. It is amazing that in 2012 we are still having conversations about racism. I thought we had made a lot of progress, but the current GOP race has shown otherwise. What Mr. Gingrich and his wife paid in federal taxes last year some people won't see in 30 years of working. I am not condemning him and his wife, but they just don't get it. Nor does Mitt Romney, with his overseas accounts.

It's unbelievable you would make former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's statement that more people are on food stamps than ever into a racist remark, then pile on with innuendo and falsehoods ("Newt the demagogue," Jan. 20). As always, you blame the prior administration - you all must have little sticky notes on your PCs reminding you to do that. There are more white folks on food stamps than blacks. For you to call Newt's statement racist is inflammatory and downright mean-spirited.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled Thursday that the state has failed to deliver food stamps and medical benefits in a timely manner to thousands of Marylanders, and he ordered a corrective action plan to be filed by late January. Judge Barry Williams ruled that the Department of Human Resources needs to fully comply by the end of 2010 with a law that requires that emergency and medical benefits be received by applicants within 30 days. The case was brought by a Baltimore County woman who sued the state after she applied for food stamps in February but did not receive the services until April, more than 60 days after the request.

The owner of a Severn pizzeria was charged with fraud yesterday for illegally buying food stamps, Anne Arundel County police said.Michelle Kyong Lee, 31, the owner of J-Jay's Pizza Carryout in the 1100 block of Reece Road, was arrested yesterday by Western District officers and charged with food stamp fraud for allegedly buying the stampsfor less than their face value.Lee, of the 7800 block of Breakstone Court in Ellicott City, was released on her own recognizance.The county Police Department's Career Criminal and Narcotics sections launched the investigation along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture after receiving several complaints that food stamps were being sold to the owner of the pizzeria.

As an organization working to end childhood hunger in Maryland, Share Our Strength appreciates your editorial about the merits of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("Food stamp recipients are the new welfare queens," Dec. 4). Three-quarters of all SNAP benefits go to families with kids. Over time, SNAP has proven to be efficient, effective and fraud is at a historic low. Critical federal child nutrition programs like SNAP and school breakfast are vital to the well being of America's children.

It was big news in Oregon last week when a local TV reporter discovered he could use a supplemental nutrition card to buy a Starbucks frappuccino. In Washington, Republicans suggested that banning millionaires from becoming eligible for food stamp benefits could help finance an extension of the payroll tax cut. And even here in Maryland, local talk show hosts were wagging their fingers over a recent report that Maryland has a relatively high food stamp overpayment rate of 6.11 percent, a problem that is far more attributable to administrative error than fraud.