Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch,
a
record 28 million Americans are now
relying on them to survive
– a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis
Año 2008
Disadvantaged Americans queue for aid in New York
We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be
worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession
stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be
depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.
Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest
that in the fiscal year starting in October,
28
million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy
essential groceries, the highest level since the food
assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.
The increase – from
26.5 million in 2007
– is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the
programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards.
But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an
economy that is suddenly beset by troubles.
Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add
to the squeeze.
Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses
seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated
from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut.
Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder
to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp
usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story.
Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing
industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out
of work. Now,
one in eight residents of the state is
on food stamps, double the level in 2000. "We have seen a
dramatic increase in recent years, but we have also seen it
climbing more in recent months,"
Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for Michigan's programme, said. "It's been
increasing steadily. Without the programme, some families and kids would be
going without."
But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions.
Forty states are reporting increases in applications for
the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled
automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers
at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states,
including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a
10 per cent increase in the past year.
In Rhode Island, the segment of the population on food stamps has risen by
18 per cent in two years. The food programme started 40 years ago when
hunger was still a daily fact of life for many Americans. The recent switch
from paper coupons to the plastic card system has helped remove some of
the stigma associated with the food stamp programme. The card can be
swiped as easily as a bank debit card. To qualify for the cards, Americans do
not have to be exactly on the breadline. The programme is available to
people whose earnings are just above the official poverty line. For Hubert
Liepnieks, the card is a lifeline he could never afford to lose. Just out of
prison, he sleeps in overnight shelters in Manhattan and uses the card at a
Morgan Williams supermarket on East 23rd Street. Yesterday, he and his
fiancée, Christine Schultz, who is in a wheelchair, shared one banana and a
cup of coffee bought with the 82 cents left on it.
"They should be refilling it in the next three or four days," Liepnieks says. At
times, he admits, he and friends bargain with owners of the smaller grocery
shops to trade the value of their cards for cash, although it is illegal. "It can
be done. I get $7 back on $10."
Richard Enright, the manager at this Morgan Williams, says the numbers of
customers on food stamps has been steady but he expects that to rise
soon. "In this location, it's still mostly old people and people who have
retired from city jobs on stamps," he says. Food stamp money was designed
to supplement what people could buy rather than covering all the costs of a
family's groceries. But the problem now, Mr Enright says, is that soaring
prices are squeezing the value of the benefits.
"Last St Patrick's Day, we were selling Irish soda bread for $1.99. This year
it was $2.99.
Prices are just spiralling up
, because of the cost of gas trucking the food into the city
and because of commodity prices. People complain, but I tell them it's not
my fault everything is more expensive."
The US Department of Agriculture says
the cost of feeding a low-income family of four
has risen 6 : per cent in 12 months.
"The amount of food stamps per household hasn't gone up with the food
costs," says Dayna Ballantyne, who runs a food bank in Des Moines, Iowa. "
Our clients are finding they aren't able to purchase
food like they used to."
And the next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to
show
50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in
March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per
cent.