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Need for food stamps on the rise
Feb 4 2009 12:00AM By By Melissa Braun Sun Staff Writer
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The economic “crisis” has made headlines in the news for several months, but Coffee County Department of Human Resource officials say the effects of a failing economy can also be seen on a local front.
CCDHR Director Brandon Hardin and Debbie Jones, food stamp program director, said as the economy continues to struggle and unemployment is on the rise, the number of households that have been placed on food stamps has grown exponentially.
“We have 1,772 households on food stamps as of December,” Jones said. “That is 213 more cases from a year ago.”
When breaking down households into individuals, Hardin said the department is currently servicing 4,665 people.
In Coffee County this year, it is estimated the department will issue $5 million in food stamps — an increase of $2 million from 2007.
“I have heard another person say, it is like the poor working place people, the people who probably would have been eligible for food stamps but both were working and they didn’t want to come in and wanted to try to make it on their own, now they can’t due to the economy and cost of living. The cost of living in general has gone up,” said Jones.
“They are forced now to try to find something that will help them. We are seeing a lot of people that you never would have thought would come in.”
The “stigma” of food stamps kept many people away from coming in for assistance, Hardin explained.
“Now they have to come in because their dollar is not going any further than it used to go,” he said.
In 31 years of working with the program, Jones said the current economic situation is the worst she has seen.
“A lot of people coming in are embarrassed. Some of the questions we have to ask delve really deep into their personal lives and they don’t like to give out that information. We have to have that information and it embarrasses them also,” Jones explained.
“You’ve got a lot of folks who look around when they come in. It is just the stigma of having to come in that is embarrassing,” Hardin said.
During the current economic situation, however, many people are living paycheck to paycheck.
“The dollar is not going as far as it used to,” Hardin reiterated.
“The food stamps are just intended to help with the income that you have,” Jones said.
Though the number has increased, putting a strain on the program’s staff ––there are currently only three workers for the program in Coffee County–– in this time of economic uncertainty, CCDHR officials want the public to know the program is available.
“Their case loads have continued to increase. They are averaging 300 applications a month in the last three months,” Hardin said.
Of the three program workers, each averages a caseload of 600 participants each.
The number of residents of Coffee County being serviced currently by the food stamps is only 50 percent of those who actually financially qualify for the program.
“Our biggest consumer of the food stamp program is not what society continues to think of as your typical welfare. The typical consumer of the food stamp product are children,” Hardin said. “We have 1, 704 children being serviced.”
Children whose families are participating in the food stamp program also receive free breakfast and lunch while in school, Jones added.
Last year, $1.3 billion was issued in food stamps in Alabama.
The number, however, has a positive impact on state and local economies, Jones explained.
“We put a little more than $4.4 million into Coffee County’s economy last year. That goes to the stores, that helps the store hire employees and gives people jobs,” she said.
Every $5 of the $4.4 million in food stamps issued in the county generated “$9.20 in local and state economic activity,” Hardin explained.
The department, he said, wants the public to recognize the assistance program is available and is not something that should create shame.
The program is one that helps provide a basic need in times of difficulty.
The county’s elderly are also urged to learn about the program if facing financial difficulties.
“We as a department are still very interested in doing outreach to our elderly even though it may increase our workload. Our main mission here is to help folks and make sure the basic needs of this county are being met. Food is a basic need,” Hardin explained.
A simplified application process is available for individuals or households in which everyone is 60 years or older.
For other households, an application for the food stamp program can be picked up at CCDHR located on Neal Metcalf Road in Enterprise.
“We are here to help. We can’t help everybody, but we can try,” Jones said.
©Southeast Sun 2009
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