Requests for Food assistance growing

By: By Michael Hastings | JOURNAL FOOD EDITOR
Published: May 16, 2010

George Lewis was a nursing assistant for 18 years until his spinal cord required surgery in December.

"I had the surgery Christmas Day," Lewis said. "My neurologist said that just a minor bump could have paralyzed me for life."

The problem, he said, was caused by years of lifting at his job -- a job he can no longer do.

Lewis hasn't received a paycheck since January. And though he will get Social Security disability payments, he said that the first check won't arrive until September.

One day last month, that led him to the Food and Nutrition Services program of the Forsyth County Department of Social Services on Highland Avenue.

Food and Nutrition Services is the local administrator of the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- formerly known as food stamps.

Lewis qualified for emergency benefits, delivered within five days. "I've been going to churches when they have food giveaways. That's what I've been eating," he said on the day he applied.

Lewis' story is one of many that case workers at DSS hear every week. Forsyth County's unemployment rate may have gone down a bit -- to 9.8 percent in March -- but requests for food assistance remain high.

In April, the program served 36,675 people in 19,019 households and disbursed more than $5.5 million in benefits.

Benefits, which come in the form of a debit card called an Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT card, averaged $293 a household or about $150 a person last month.

Though participation in the first four months of 2010 has been level, April's participation is up more than 16 percent from a year ago.

The high demand has posed challenges for social services. The supplemental program, known as SNAP, isn't like other government programs, in which higher demand means a bigger backlog and a longer wait.

Federal policy mandates that qualifying SNAP applicants receive benefits within 30 days. "Express" applicants, those in extreme need, must get services within seven days.

Artetta McKinney, the program manager, oversees 43 workers, most of whom interview and approve new applicants and recertify benefits.

"The challenge is attempting to serve people at the same level we've always served at," McKinney said.

Contributing to the demand for services is that SNAP benefits can continue indefinitely if income and other criteria are met.

Barbara Barnes has been receiving benefits since 2004, a year after surgery left her with chronic pain and pins, rods, plates and screws in her back. Barnes, 59, had worked as a waitress, but had no pension or savings. "I can't sit for long periods of time. I can't stand for long periods of time. I have to lie down," she said.

Barnes, like many people, probably will receive SNAP benefits for the rest of her life -- but her qualifications still must be re-certified by case workers every six or 12 months, depending on circumstances.

Fortunately, McKinney's department has gotten some help. The federal government recently began allowing recertifications by phone or mail instead of in person, McKinney said.

Federal stimulus money allowed McKinney to hire three clerical workers and one case worker in September. Additional federal money is keeping those workers another year and is paying for three more for a year.

The program also got more space to conduct interviews and will go paperless in the next six months, speeding the process. "Sometimes we get more than 100 people a day" applying for the first time, McKinney said.

Despite the changes, caseworkers are handling larger loads. Tamela Crockett said that her caseload has gone from about 500 cases to more than 750

in the past two years.

The struggling economy has brought in new kinds of clients, Crockett said. "Now we have people who have $200,000 homes and have been laid off. We also get people who own their own businesses -- hairdressers, computer techs, nannies," she said.

Not everyone qualifies, but caseworkers still must process the applications.

Sometimes it's not just the economy that brings people to the program. Crockett recalled a woman whose husband had just died of cancer. She was jobless and had three children. "She was about to lose her house and her car," Crockett said. "She was so thankful to get benefits. She said, ‘I just want to feed my children.'"

mhastings@wsjournal.com.

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