Food Stamps &: Hunger in America

...In early 1967 people living in a Freedom Camp in the Mississippi Delta, having been evicted from their farms, were denied food on the ostensible grounds that none of them comprised a "household," because the families were cooking and eating in communal style...

...When perishable foods in surplus were distributed locally, well-off people complained about pampering those on relief—which amounted usually to no more than a surfeit of grapefruit in school lunches...

...Nor can any farm-labor family get food if there are two or more able-bodied men over the age of 16 and the welfare department finds that work is available in Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, or New Mexico.* In other states, including Mississippi, food is denied, during the crop season, to men, women, and children who might he able to work in the fields...

...Nor does this provision prescribe any standards for determining who may receive food, or even any limitations on standards that could be used by the distributing agency...

...everywhere standards are chronically inadequate...

...t The Southern Courier, May 13-14, 1967, p. 6 col...

...Preliminary reports from USDA indicate that the change from surplus food to stamps in the South causes a drop in participation of at least 40% and that in 1966 a source of food was cut off for at least 75,000...

...USDA has imposed this cash requirement on the program apparently out of fanatical rejection of "something for nothing...

...The grocer was then free to overcharge to the extent of the credit...

...The scale discriminates against the very poor in that it requires the commitment to food spending of a disproportionately high share of the income of a family which has little or no income...

...These 36 counties were mostly southern, that is the poorer counties where black people live in larger proportions...

...This rarefied concept serves to cover almost all families, but when a person lives alone and eats with a relative nearby or when two old people live in the same house but buy their food separately, they are denied food...

...I live with my seven children...

...This provision prescribes no means of administration, but clearly authorizes complete federal operation...

...110 Cong...

...The success, either in relief or farm price support, of this early direct distribution is in doubt, because local welfare agencies would often cut cash relief payments by the amount taken to be the value of the food distributed...

...and they will tear off additional stamps...

...The alliance of USDA and the white farmer has brought about the practical elimination of production surpluses...

...Once a family does qualify to receive food, it faces the problem of how to get it...

...Responsibility for administration was confused, and shifted from the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration...

...Rec...

...Probably no county, however, has too small a tax base to pay the costs of distributing food, Yet many county officials in the South must believe that it's not worth it, since the labor of poor families is no longer necessary to agriculture and free food would only delay their departure for the North...

...eggs...

...MRS...

...Welf...

...There is hunger in the welfare state...

...I do get $5 to $10 about once a month from the baby's father...

...This is the prerogative which the federal government has delegated to county leadership...

...Direct distribution of federal surplus food began on a regular basis in 1933...

...He advanced the cash for the stamps, and they bought them and turned them over to him for credit...

...In the affected areas of Georgia participation dropped about 75%, in Kentucky about 50...

...The Food Stamp Act says simply that the family * Wall Street Journal, April 29, 1967...

...Since I lost the job I've been eating only what people give me plus some commodities which were left over when the program ended...

...They haven't given inc a job as they promised...

...I was asked for $12 to buy food stamps...

...the family would therefore end up with even less money to buy food...

...The poor consumer soon discovers, however, that merchants raise prices and put forth inferior foods...

...3-1002.(A) (1966...

...local people that if they were poor they should go to work or leave the county...

...It has met the charges with bureaucratic obduracy...

...Someone may go for a family or a sick person, but this must be arranged in advance or authorized in writing...

...USDA reports an over-50% drop for Detroit from 1962 to 1965...

...People in the rural South have a credit economy...

...The program in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, started with 23,670 buying stamps in June, 1961 and had 13,843 people participating in June, 1966 (both months of national peak participation...

...In Manhattan there are 11...

...For breakfast we have dry rice and bread...

...The Secretary must know what he means by a "national disaster": apparently it is not mass hunger and slow starvation...

...While the "need" standard might have been applied by a simple declaration, USDA requires the states to put people through the archaic ritual of the means test (unless they are already getting public assistance), showing that their income and property are within the limitations...

...Hardship" provisions, optional with the states, often require a natural disaster, such as a flood or hurricane, rather than a family illness...

...The Wall Street Journal...

...That would effectively end food stamp programs in most of the South by causing states to withdraw their food stamp "plans" and leave those counties which have recently changed without any food program...

...15442 (1964...

...But in 1964 this routine was threatened by the enactment of the Food Stamp Act of 1964, which was intended to phase out the surplus commodities program...

...The most glaring inadequacy of the welfare system— the diet of the poor—has been patched over by supplementary programs: first surplus commodities, now food stamps, both administered by the U.S...

...Thus in Ari zona, for example, a man living alone cannot get his portion of boiled beef, rice, flour, etc...

...f Presumably many of the loans would never be repayed...

...In New York City it may go to one of a number of distribution depots, which are open on a staggered schedule...

...Whether they could depended, and still depends, upon which county they lived in...

...They cost an amount so much higher than what the family would otherwise spend for food as to make it difficult or impossible to participate in the program...

...USDA spokesmen have told representatives of welfare groups that the purpose of the food stamp program is not to aid the poor but to maintain farmers' incomes...

...With the gradual and increasing replacement of surplus food distribution by food stamps, certain well-advertised advantages are supposed to accrue: better food, such as fresh meat and * Arizon Manual of Pub...

...In Mississippi a family of four with monthly income between $0 and $29.99 must pay $8 (for $48 worth of stamps...

...In Louisiana civil rights workers found that food prices shot up with the adoption of the food stamp program...

...When the families have little or no income they make only token payments or receive their coupons free.' The agriculture bureaucrats of the USDA have their own client groups: the representatives of the white South who dominate the agriculture committees in the House and Senate, and the powerful organizations of the prosperous commercial white farmers...

...Two of them are in school but don't have enough money to pay for their lunches...

...unless it is established that he is unemployable...

...I used to get commodities until the program ended...

...Since the government now allows the states to make counties bear the cost of storing, transporting, and distributing the food' and does not require that the state insure the statewide operation of a program, the choice for the people of any county is made by the governing body of that county...

...In Georgia in 1967, 100 out of 159 counties had no food programs...

...Then the applicants must meet USDA's definition of a "household," which it applies in both the surplus commodities and food stamp programs...

...should pay an amount "determined to be equivalent to their normal expenditures for food...

...In Illinois a family of four (not receiving public assistance) with monthly income between $0 and $69.99 must pay $28 (for $68 worth of stamps...

...Typically, the provision for low-income persons was an afterthought, not added until 1939...

...But farm prices have not been rising, and so the more the poor are forced to consume commercially sold food, the better for farmers...

...7128 (1964), and other supporters, 110 Cong...

...not a give-away but a supplementation of the family's food budget...

...If these farm families do not receive public assistance, they have cash income perhaps once or twice a year...

...The government's response to the Mississippi crisis was a demonstration of virtuosity...

...It's from Herbert Hoover, speaking in another summer, when he accepted the nomination for President in 1928...

...For the rest, the states are free to impose their own limitations, within the tolerance of USDA...

...MRS...

...From 1933 to 1943, FERA and WPA provided operating funds which enabled states to conduct statewide distribution, as did Alabama, for example...

...As the change continues, these figures will probably climb much higher...

...The family suffers exclusion from the program for a period and must reapply to participate again...

...There is strong reason to believe that Congress intended that families without income receive their entire allotments without charge...

...At the depot one joins the line and waits to be handed the bundle of food...

...Throughout the South the families which could get surplus foods were the fortunate ones...

...I haven't worked since January 21st, when I lost my Work Experience program job...

...For more than 30 years the issuance of canned meat, cheese, flour, beans, dry milk, and lard was part of the routine of survival for millions of per sons...

...The Office of Economic Opportunity, called upon for help, recited USDA's interpretation of the Food Stamp Act but announced that it (OEO) would grant family loans to enable families to buy food stamps...

...However, as many as 13 million persons received food in 1939...

...USDA has several means of using the program to maximize consumption...

...Admin...

...a wider selection of food...

...It later included fruit, vegetables, eggs, fish, and other products, but the presence of a surplus almost always determined the selection...

...The decision was that the program should be operated locally, not by the federal government, but by the various state departments of public welfare which in turn used the office of their county branches...

...The record of older programs shows a tendency for participation in the food stamp program to drop as it goes on...

...B. ...I live with my five chilren...

...According to one USDA official, "presumably, a couple of odd jobs could supply that minimum purchase requirement...

...In rural counties some farmers, who had to borrow money to buy stamps during most of the year, made an arrangement with the grocer...

...Yet USDA rules that those who ordinarily spend nothing for food pay cash for stamps...

...ward with the policies of the last eight years, and we shall soon, with the help of God, be within sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation...

...Some days I don't have anything to eat at all...

...I haven't worked since three months ago before the baby was born I don't get welfare...

...This Act was based on the operation of pilot food stamp programs, which President Kennedy had initiated in 1961...

...Arizona will not feed him even if he is working and his property and income are below the maximum standards...

...A main source of food has been cut off to thousands of people who have little or no cash...

...and use of the existing channels of commerce...

...The income limitations are rigid...

...Of course USDA regulations prohibit discriminatory price raises but provide no means for consumers to enforce the prohibition...

...Some people —the aged and those who cannot work and have no resources—must get along without cash at all, living on garden vegetables, perhaps fresh eggs, and gifts...

...In the Congressional debate Senator Humphrey answered: The price they pay is approximately what they would normally spend for food out of whatever income they have from whatever source...

...It is not a question of the cost of the program, since the government could issue at least the free bonus coupons to any family without income and disregard the rest of the allotment...

...I have used my last can of commodity meat...

...The selection does not include any food marked imported and so discriminates against Puerto Ricans or Italians who commit their food budgets to stamps...

...7150 (1964...

...But since food stamps come only in two denominations (two dollars, or fifty cents) and merchants are not allowed to give change, they will cheat on the credit record...

...Statements to the same effect were made by the author of the legislation, 110 Cong...

...How do poor people endure in states like Mississippi...

...Until then, although USDA could impose any reasonable conditions upon any state's food stamp program, it is prohibited by a provision of the Act (which was supported by the Secretary of Agriculture) from distributing food in a county which has stamps unless the Secretary declares the existence of a "national or other disaster...

...Families in large cities will have to go to supermarkets instead of small markets and bodegas, which are deterred from participating by inertia or bureaucratic obstructions...

...I don't know where I will get any money to buy food when we run out of commodities...

...One is the regularparticipation requirement, which pun ishes a family for failing to buy stamps for two, or perhaps three, months in succession...

...Now we're eating some leftover commodities...

...Negro families borrow regularly from the plantation owner, the white family for whom the mother does domestic work, the grocer, the neighbors, the relatives...

...Thus the general poverty of some counties encourages the white leadership to refuse the surplus food program...

...The probate judge told some j- 6 CFR §503.6 (i...

...In Hale County, Alabama, in 1966, about half the population of 19,000 would have been eligible for surplus foods...

...I feed my children beans or bread for lunch, and don't cat myself...

...The quotation is not, as you might suppose, from a speech of Lyndon Johnson heralding his war on poverty...

...If he bought them he would receive "bonus" stamps in addition...

...In New York State a family of four with an income of $280 a month is eligible but a dollar more disqualifies them...

...From the beginning, the federal agency has distributed food, not directly to needy persons, but to public welfare and private charitable agencies...

...1. POVERTY AND POLITICS "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land...

...These decisions were left to the Secretary of Agriculture...

...A proposal by Congressman Poage of Texas would require the states to pay 20% of the cost of the bonus stamps, besides the present operating costs...

...53 Stat...

...Suppose the family has no "normal expenditures for food...

...It is ironic that OEO, an agency dedicated to specialized service programs, must pay the cost of USDA's intransigence...

...In Alabama in 1966, 36 of the state's 67 counties had no food programs whatsoever...

...744...

...In the pilot projects, as now, the participant, after showing that he didn't have too much property, would give the amount of his income and be told how much he would have to pay for the stamps...

...We have not yet reached the goal, but given a chance to go for...

...Two of my children chopped a little cotton last year, two days a week for $2 to $3 a day...

...Direct distribution was devised to avert mass starvation in the Depression while simultaneously disposing of the food stocks acquired by the government in the initial farm price support program...

...Another means of maximizing consumption is the prescribed scale which determines how much a family must pay to buy stamps...

...But unlike now, if he had no income, as about 10 per cent of those participating didn't, he would be issued stamps free...

...I don't have $12...

...The growing hunger might lead USDA to acknowledge and exercise its power to distribute food directly, itself, in any county which did not have food stamps...

...Household" is defined as people living together in an economic unit, sharing the purchase and preparation of food...

...But in the rural South getting the food often entails paying one's neighbor or boss man to drive him into the county seat on the one day a month when food is distributed...

...Department of Agriculture (USDA...

...The loans, ranging in amount from $2 to $12, at 2 per cent interest, were to begin in June and to be made available for four months in 20 Southern counties including four in Mississippi and one in Alabama...

...Distribution began with three commodities made available by price-support purchases: pork, butter, and wheat...

...Recently in county after county in the South the distribution of free food has stopped with the adoption of the cash-based food stamp program...

...32 Act of August 24, 1935, 49 Stat...

...For any person who has received surplus foods the most important fact about food stamps is that they cost money...

...The administration and operation of these programs reveal a deep ambiguity in the government's commitment to assure an adequate diet to those in need...

...For supper we eat whatever is left from lunch, if anything...

...These are also the counties in which arbitrary personal and political standards are most likely to prevail in the administration of public assistance...

...In 1966 in Alabama the bundle was worth about $19, and in New York its composition and value were about the same...

...Now the responsibility lies with the Consumer and Marketing Service of USDA...

...A 1935 Amendment to the first Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, which authorizes the distribution of food acquired for surplus reduction,* has remained the principal basis of the direct distribution of food ever since...

...USDA has had to face charges, from poor people and senators, in public hearings, mass meetings and petitions, of its complicity in "forced starvation...