Op Ed: Food Stamp Challenge to Readers: Find the Hunger in Your Community

For Immediate Release: November 2, 2011
Media Contact: Emily Weikert Bryant, Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, 317/452-9829

This week, I and many others across the nation have embarked upon a challenge to eat—and hopefully eat nutritiously—on $4.50 a day. We do so to draw attention to the record high of nearly 46 million Americans who do this daily, not as a measure of advocacy, but as a necessity. 13.8 percent of Hoosiers received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP)—previously called food stamps—in September, with an average monthly benefit of $132 per person. This equates roughly to $1.50 a meal. Who are these Hoosiers? Are they lottery winners or cheats defrauding the system? Maybe a handful of them. But the vast majority, the people who don’t make the news, are not. The USDA reports only 1 cent of every dollar spent for SNAP benefits is siphoned away to food stamp ‘trafficking’, or the selling of benefits for cash. The USDA still continues to strive to improve that rate by aggressively enforcing individual trafficking cases and implementing new technologies to catch fraud where it occurs. What is more impressive is that SNAP has a considerably higher accuracy rate than other major federal benefit programs, getting the correct benefits to those who need and qualify for them more than 96 percent of the time. Nearly one-fifth of errors are underpayments, resulting in eligible participants receiving less in benefits than they are eligible to receive.

So again, who are these Hoosiers? We know that one in six Hoosiers is at risk of hunger, and the number is even higher for children at one in four. This means that nearly 850,000 Hoosiers, and nearly 389,000 of them children, are unsure from where their next meal will come. Of these, only 45 percent qualify for SNAP benefits by the guidelines set for eligibility by the state, which is set at an annual income of about $28,700 for a family of four. The remaining Hoosiers at risk of hunger have too much income to be eligible, yet they still cannot consistently find enough quality, nutritious food. Nationally, 76 percent of SNAP participant households include a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable individuals, for whom seeking employment is more than likely not an option, receive 84 percent of all SNAP benefits. And the rest? Indiana’s unemployment sits just under 9 percent. How are these folks stretching what income they have to cover their expenses? When it comes to food, they are quite possibly receiving SNAP benefits or visiting a food pantry to provide enough for their family.

Hunger does exist in Indiana, but it is not always easy to see. What we may see—individuals at pantries or a shopper using an EBT card at the grocery store—may look just like us. They may attend our church, live in our neighborhood, belong to the PTA, but what don’t we know about their circumstances? Rarely would someone publicly seek help when there is still a stigma attached to doing so if the help is not desperately needed. How many are parents who have lost their jobs, seniors who have seen a life-time of savings decimated by market down-turns or exhausted by medical costs, people who never thought they would need a helping hand, but now have nowhere else to turn.

Now, when Congress is debating our federal budget for this year with implications for years to come, cuts to SNAP and other federal anti-hunger programs would be devastating for the nearly 850,000 food insecure Hoosiers struggling with hunger, and would have long term costs far greater than any short term savings.

As we challenge ourselves to live on a SNAP budget for a week, I wish to issue another challenge. I challenge you, reader, to open your eyes to the hunger hiding in your community, and to seek out solutions. We Hoosiers are caring people and we have plenty here in our fertile state. Let’s make sure our friends, neighbors, and family have enough to eat too.

Emily Weikert Bryant is the executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, the state association of food banks.

About Feeding Indiana’s Hungry
Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, Inc. is the statewide association of Feeding America affiliated food banks (formerly America’s Second Harvest). Our eleven member food banks serve more than 1,700 agencies in all 92 counties, providing emergency food assistance to Hoosiers in need.

Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, Inc. food banks statewide include:

Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Gary
Food Bank of Northern Indiana, South Bend
Food Finders Food Bank, Inc., Lafayette
Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana, Ft. Wayne
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana, Inc., Muncie
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Indianapolis
Terre Haute Catholic Charities Foodbank, Terre Haute
Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Bloomington
Tri-State Food Bank, Inc., Evansville
Dare to Care Food Bank, Louisville, KY
Freestore Foodbank, Cincinnati, OH

For more information on Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, Inc. contact Emily Weikert Bryant at 317/396-9355 or ewbryant@feedingindianashungry.org, or view our website atwww.feedingindianashungry.org. Find us on Facebook atfacebook.com/FeedingIndianasHungry or follow our news on Twitter attwitter.com/FeedINsHungry

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Op Ed: Food Stamp Challenge to Readers: Find the Hunger in Your Community

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