Still Hungry, Still Invisible
Bacon, Margaret H.
Still Hungry, Still Invisible by MARGARET H. BACON Ever since the Great Depression, when men shuffled along in soup lines and little old ladies fainted from hunger, Americans have comforted...
...Stamps have to be bought in a lump sum, usually once a month...
...even the most destitute, we believed, at least received some commodities...
...For the richest nation on the face of the earth, this does not seem too tall an order...
...In 1968 some of these comfortable assumptions were shattered when Peter Davis produced an imaginative documentary program, "Hunger in America," for the Columbia Broadcasting System...
...Sometimes a psychological principle —"if I don't admit the problem it doesn't exist"—seemed at work...
...The results of their findings, the CRASH report, is now making waves in Washington...
...In Los Angeles, only twenty per cent of those on public assistance are participating in the food stamp program...
...They spent eight weeks in thirty-five counties in fifteen states...
...If the participant is in the commodity program, he has to have a dwelling big enough to store a month's supply of food...
...In either program he cannot afford to get sick at a time inconvenient for program officials...
...One is language...
...Still Hungry, Still Invisible by MARGARET H. BACON Ever since the Great Depression, when men shuffled along in soup lines and little old ladies fainted from hunger, Americans have comforted themselves that no one goes hungry in our land of affluence...
...Based on their findings, the CRASH volunteers wrote a profile of the "good" food program participant: "First of all, a participant in any food program should have no pride...
...generally speaking, less than one half of those who should be receiving Federal help were actually getting it...
...There are other barriers which prevent the poor from being properly informed about food programs, AFSC investigators found...
...Can the Federal food programs be sufficiently corrected to reach the poor...
...A regulation that each family must have its own cooking facilities means that migrant workers are not eligible...
...f Reforms in the food stamp program to include free stamps for those with no cash income, and easing of regulations to permit stamp users to buy stamps in units smaller than a month's supply, and to use stamps for soap and necessary paper articles as well as food...
...In one town in Maine the managing director (formerly called overseer of the poor) was approached by a group from the local Community Action Program with a request for the institution of a commodity program for the needy...
...The official expressed his disbelief that such a program was needed, and invited the CAP delegation back if they could produce fifteen persons eligible for the program...
...A rigid system of scheduling which gives as much food to an elderly couple as to a young one, and takes no account of the fact that children may need more food than adults, makes the stamp plan even more unworkable...
...Similarly, local officials have done nothing to alleviate the fears which surround the food programs...
...Still, he needs access to a car or truck in order to apply, get certified, buy stamps, spend stamps, and pick up commodities...
...In Maine, he can do this easily by signing a four-page form which ends, T, hereby, swear the above facts to be true to the best of my ability and know that I am asking for Pauper Supplies and that I am destitute and unable to take care of the necessities of life.' " The potential recipient has to have a sixth sense so that he can find out what programs are available, and he has to be able to speak, read, write, and eat in English—forgetting his ethnic background and eating habits, according to CRASH...
...In Allegany County, Maryland, it is generally believed (and nowhere publicly contradicted) that a child is provided a free lunch only if he does not have a father...
...instance did the officials interviewed by CRASH consider it part of their job to go out and find the families who might need their services...
...Since most offices involved in food programs are open, at best, only during normal office hours," adds the CRASH report, "the participant should not have a job, so that he can adjust his time to the convenience of program officials...
...The students who participated in the CRASH program last summer do not think so...
...The food stamp program, in particular, seems to have been designed with middle class rather than poor people in mind...
...He should be an expert dietician, especially if he is receiving surplus commodities, so that he can construct a varied and balanced diet on a maximum of eighteen foods, mainly starches, which he will receive...
...The rule that the head of the household must sign up for commodities, for example, discriminates against the family whose father is away from home looking for work...
...In Multnomah County, Oregon, CRASH found 19,732 families live below the poverty level, but only 4,027 households receive food commodities...
...A major reason for the failure of the Federal programs to reach the poor appears to be the lack of outreach by local officials...
...He shouldn't own a car because that may be evidence that he isn't poor enough to participate...
...A fourth grader said, "I take a bag lunch because my mommy says it's none of their business whether I have a father or not...
...f Changes to allow the stamp and commodity programs to operate simultaneously in the same county...
...A principal in a South Jersey town said they did not want to embarrass the children, and therefore did not publicize free lunches...
...It is our belief that the United States of America is not only financially able but morally obligated to assure that no one in this country suffer from hunger or malnutrition," the CRASH report concludes...
...Since the stamps do not cover necessary items such as soap and paper goods, it is impossible for a family on a tight budget to cover all its needs...
...Within three days the CAP representatives had found 121 people who did in fact need the program...
...Commodity stations far from public transportation, food stamps offices which are open only during working hours, and regulations which make participation next to impossible further prevent the poor from benefiting from the programs originally designed to assist them...
...He must not mind case workers and sometimes the entire community knowing everything there is to know about his family, his economic standing, his medical and personal problems...
...These recommendations include: f Extensive public education programs to let the needy know what programs are available to them...
...The scale of eligibility and the scale for determining how much money you have to pay for stamps is so rigidly administered that if you are sixty-eight cents over the limit for one level, you may end up paying $10 more for a few more stamps...
...That concession, the attitude seems to be, would coddle the poor...
...Their findings were a shock...
...They recommend instead that a guaranteed adequate income for all be substituted, although they are sure that President Nixon's suggested $1,600 for a family of four is totally inadequate...
...A special citizens' group published a startling report, Hunger, U.S.A...
...He should have no special dietary needs, such as for ulcers, indigestion, high blood pressure, or heart disease...
...This means putting up more cash at one time than most poor families can afford...
...pie...
...The incidents on which the profile was based occurred as often in Maine as in Georgia, as often in Oregon as in Arizona, according to the CRASH report...
...If he misses a certain number of opportunities to participate, he is dropped from the rolls and must go through the entire certification procedure again...
...Such a uniform pattern encountered in eight weeks spent in fifteen states suggests that the problems are indeed general throughout the country...
...Finally, our food program participant should forget about exercising choice...
...Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the CRASH program (Call to Research and Act to Stop Hunger) was manned by some 200 participants, mainly high school and college students, some of whom had been active in Senator Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Presidential campaign...
...Though not a scientific sampling, the material compiled by team members from across the country presents compelling evidence that the Federal food programs are not in fact reaching the people for whom they were supposedly intended...
...By assembling figures, county by county, on how many families live below the poverty level, and comparing these figures with those receiving food stamps, commodities, or free lunches, CRASH was able to make a rough estimate of the efficacy of the programs...
...In Allegany County, Maryland, an estimated 2,550 children from welfare families should be getting free or reduced cost lunches, but only 1,150 are provided...
...they talked with welfare officials and school principals as well as with program participants...
...f Directives from Federal authorities to food program personnel at all levels to make it eminently clear that the programs they administer are intended to reach all who need them...
...He must be ready to beggar himself in terms of dignity...
...We have thought that our welfare programs and our Federal food programs, no matter how inadequate, at least placed some sort of floor beneath which the poor could not sink...
...You take what commodities are available...
...Sickness, missed rides, confusion of dates, or no money for stamps, are not considered valid excuses...
...If the participant is using stamps, he should be a mathematical whiz," the report continues...
...Among the extremely poor there are rumors that if you sign up for stamps your children will be taken away from you, or you will lose your home...
...They occurred among Indians, among Mexican Americans, among black people, and among white peo"The food stamp program, in particular, seems to have been designed with middle class rather than poor people in mind...
...No human being should be made to feel he has to divest himself of all dignity in order to survive physically...
...Senator George Mc-Govern, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, began hearings around the country to find out from people what it was like to live in poverty...
...In none of the thirty-five counties did officials interviewed regard it as their duty to find out how many citizens lived below the poverty level, and then attempt to extend the food programs to them...
...One Maryland administrator told CRASH interviewers that "a little knowledge is sometimes harmful...
...Many poor people speak Spanish, an Indian language, or (in Maine) French...
...Enforcement of guidelines against discrimination in the free and reduced-cost lunch program, and appropriation of matching state funds...
...No effort is made to communicate with them in their own language...
...1j More money at all levels of government for the existing food programs...
...Others indicated they considered the programs a privilege, not a right...
...You spend a predetermined amount of money for food and shop at stores pre-chosen by Federal certifiers...
...In another town in Maine, where town officials were sure no such program was needed, the state Health and Welfare Department estimated that at least 1,000 persons were eligible...
...In almost no MARGARET H. BACON is a member of the national staff of the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia...
...Meanwhile, CRASH has proposed extensive recommendations for making the food programs function more efficiently, and humanely, on the national, state, and county levels...
...Even those administrators who felt they had some responsibility to let the public know about the programs relied on word of mouth, pamphlets left in welfare offices, or other haphazard means of communication...
...Touched by fresh insights into the lot of the poor, a group of young people organized last summer to take a hard look at the Federal food programs, and to find out, if possible, why they were not reaching the people for whom they were designed...
Vol. 34 • February 1970 • No. 2
