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Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004423780_webfoodstamps19.html

By DON BABWIN

The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, 
braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her food 
stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago.

For days, Brown said, she has been turning cans of "whatever we got in the 
cabinet" into breakfast, lunch and dinner for her children, ages 1 and 3.

"Ain't got no food left, the kids are probably hungry," said Brown, a 
23-year-old single mother who relies heavily on her $312 monthly allotment of 
food stamps -- a ration adjusted just once a year, in October.

This is what the skyrocketing cost of food looks like at street level: Poor 
people whose food stamps don't buy as much as they once did rushing into a 
store in the dead of night, filling shopping carts with cereal, eggs and milk 
so their kids can wake up on the first day of the month to a decent meal.

"People with incomes below the poverty threshold are in dire straits because 
not only are food prices increasing but the food stamps they are receiving 
have not increased," said Dr. John Cook, an associate professor at Boston 
University's medical school who has studied the food stamp program, 
particularly how it affects children.

On the South Side of Chicago, people like Brown wait for the stroke of 
midnight, when one month gives way to another and brings a new allotment of 
food stamps.

Dennis Kladis began opening his family owned One Stop Food & Liquors once a 
month at midnight nine months ago to give desperate families a chance to buy 
food as soon as possible.

"I'm telling you, by the end of the month they're just dying to get back to 
the first," said Kladis, who has watched other area stores follow his lead. 
"Obviously, they are struggling to get through the month."

Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, which runs the 
food stamp program, said there is only so much the aid can do.

"Food stamps were designed to be a supplement to the food budget," she said. 
They "were never intended to be the entire budget."

As prices rise, the number of Americans relying on food stamps has also 
climbed by 6.1 percent in the past year, increasing from 26.1 million in 
February 2007 to 27.7 million in February this year. The sputtering economy, 
persistent unemployment and the mortgage crisis have all contributed to the 
increase. The Agriculture Department expects the overall number of 
participants to reach 28 million next year.

For Lynda Wheeler, who receives $281 in food stamps each month, the rhythm of 
life has been one of shopping for food, running out of food and then turning 
to churches, food pantries and friends for help. And all the while, she is 
doing things like cutting milk with water to make it last a bit longer.

"You get it on the first and it runs out by the 14th and 15th," said Wheeler, 
a single mom who brought her 14-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter shopping 
at midnight with the Link card, the Illinois version of food stamps.

Because food stamp allotments are adjusted every fall based on the federal 
food inflation rate, recipients are months away from getting any relief. But 
even when that relief comes, advocates said, it won't come close to keeping 
pace with rising costs.

The consumer price index for food rose 5 percent last year, the highest gain 
in nearly two decades. It is especially grim news for the poor.

Start with milk. Between March 2007 and this year, a gallon of milk jumped 
from just over $3 a gallon to nearly $3.80, according to the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. During the same period, eggs climbed from about $1.60 a dozen to 
$2.20. Bread, chicken and tomatoes are all more expensive than last year.

Just last summer, the maximum food stamp payment -- $542 a month for a family 
of four with a gross annual income of no more than $26,856 -- was enough to 
cover the USDA's "thrifty food plan," a bare-bones diet that meets minimal 
nutritional needs. Studies show that allotment now falls about $25 short, 
Cook said.

And just getting to the store is a lot more expensive. Since October, the 
cost of gas has shot up nationally from $2.70 a gallon to $3.62, according to 
the Lundberg Survey, a petroleum market research firm.

If the USDA pulls $1.7 billion from a contingency fund of $6 billion this 
year to support the food stamp program, as it expects to do, that would be 
the largest withdrawal since $2 billion was pulled out after Hurricane 
Katrina in 2005.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a five-year, $300 billion farm bill that 
includes $200 billion for nutrition programs such as food stamps and 
emergency food aid for the needy. Daniel said it was too early to say how 
that will affect benefits to food stamp recipients, and she knew of no 
provision in the bill to make the annual adjustment before the fall.

Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition, said 
she's seeing people more frantic for food than ever.

"The level of desperation is just frightening," she said. "People are 
calling, saying they have no idea what they are going to do."

But even as demand is rising, many food pantries nationwide have been forced 
to cut back on the amount of food given to individual families because higher 
fuel costs and commodity prices have sliced into private donations to the 
pantries.

For now, many of the needy, including many in Kladis' store pushing carts 
laden with soda pop, bags of cookies and chips -- much of it cheaper than 
healthier food -- are doing what they can to stretch their shrinking buying 
power.

"The bottom line is, a mother trying to feed her kids is not really picky 
about what she puts in their bellies," said Dan Gibbons, executive director 
of the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation. "She just wants them full."