Food Stamps

Steven Small, 33, wanted to be in politics so badly, they say he tried for spots in several City Council offices . . . in his own way. Police yesterday arrested Small, of Media Avenue near 55th Street, as he allegedly hawked food stamps on the corner of 54th and Master in his West Philadelphia neighborhood. At the time, Small was posing as Lester Brown, administrative assistant for Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell's office, police said. After the arrest, a quick call to Blackwell's office disclosed that the Lester Brown who worked there was in the office, working.

THANKS for your edit on the alarming number of children who've received food stamps at some point. Many people don't realize just how vital that safety-net program is. Without it, we'd have much higher rates of hunger in this country. In Pennsylvania, the number of children in the program has risen 37 percent in the last five years. Considering your readership likely encompasses more than Pennsylvanians, it would be prudent to point out that the eligibility requirements of the program (now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance)

Welfare recipients will be able to get supplemental food stamps next month if the General Assembly has not adopted a state budget by Monday's deadline, a state welfare official said yesterday. Yvette Jackson, the Department of Public Welfare's acting deputy secretary for income maintenance, said federal officials had given the department tentative approval to award extra food stamps in the event the Casey administration cannot issue welfare checks next month. Under state law, the government loses the authority to spend money - including payments to welfare recipients, funding for schools and payroll for state employees - if the legislature has not approved a new budget by the start of the 1992 fiscal year.

A major fraud ring in the city has been stamped out. Thirteen people have been arrested after a yearlong undercover investigation into illegal trafficking of food stamps at six local take-out restaurants, District Attorney Lynne Abraham said yesterday. Employees of the following eateries were arrested: Number 1 Kitchen, at 5th Street near Cumberland; Eddie's Chinese Restaurant, on Allegheny Avenue near Lee Street; Kitchen Express, on 2nd Street near Dauphin Street; Yung Hinh Inn on 52nd Street near Irving Street; Antai Kitchen on Chew Avenue near Woodlawn Avenue; and another Number 1 Kitchen, on Washington Lane near Stenton Avenue.

OF ALL THE distortions and downright lies about the food-stamp program that have been trotted out in recent weeks, perhaps the biggest howler is the one advanced by the Wall Street Journal editorial page. It said the program is "becoming the latest middle-class entitlement. " The actual fact is that no one within shouting distance of middle class is eligible for food stamps: According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, 85 percent of recipients have incomes below the poverty line — $18,500 for a family of three — with the rest barely above it. Last week, the House Agricultural Committee passed a five-year reauthorization of the farm bill that cuts $16 billion in food stamps while keeping several subsidies for corporate farmers intact.

Federal agents yesterday arrested four city residents and were seeking two others on charges of trafficking in food stamps, a widespread problem in Philadelphia, prosecutors say. In each case, the defendants were accused of purchasing food stamps for roughly half their face value near locations where food-stamp recipients pick up their coupons each month. One defendant on one occasion allegedly traded $1,000 cash and a Batman T- Shirt for $2,180 in food stamps, authorities said.

Immigrants from scores of countries are changing the face of this city, as the Daily News reported Tuesday in a special section, "The New Philadelphians. " But some of those immigrants are hungry, victims of the shortsighted - not to mention cruel - cutoff of food stamps in the 1996 welfare reform act. Around the state, food banks are reporting a surge in hungry people, some of them immigrants, including children. Other legal immigrants are disabled or elderly - not able to become citizens, which would re-qualify them for food assistance.

When it comes to making laws that affect poor people, legislators everywhere in the country are generous at serving up rhetoric. Apparently, few are hungry for firsthand knowledge. Only about a dozen state legislators in Pennsylvania have taken the challenge to "walk a mile" in the shoes of welfare recipients and the working poor this month. As part of a program sponsored here by the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania, the legislators will live on typical food-stamp allotments for their county.

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. - A Michigan lottery winner was charged with fraud Tuesday for collecting food stamps and public health insurance despite having pocketed a $735,000 jackpot. Amanda Clayton, 25, was silent during a brief court hearing after spending a night in jail. A not-guilty plea was entered, and her lawyer vowed to fight the charges. Clayton is the second person in Michigan caught with food stamps despite newly minted wealth. Gov. Rick Snyder last week signed a law requiring the lottery to notify the Human Services Department when someone wins at least $1,000.

WASHINGTON - Farmers markets are a popular source of reasonably priced fresh produce, but across the country many accept only cash or checks - a big problem for low-income shoppers using food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to change that. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan this week announced a $4 million grant for states to help implement wireless technology that will allow more farmers markets to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps.

WASHINGTON - Despite the efforts of senators from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a bid to phase out a Depression-era federal price-support program for sugar failed in the Senate on Wednesday. The 54-45 vote came on an amendment to the farm bill. Sens. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) had argued, among other concerns, that the supports raise costs for candymakers such as Hershey and Mars, strong presences in their states. "For every job that we save among sugar producers, we lose three jobs among companies that manufacture with sugar," Toomey said on the Senate floor.

CAMDEN A Camden grocery store manager arrested last week on allegations he stole more than $1 million from taxpayers in a food-stamp scheme appeared in U.S. District Court in Camden Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. Alexander D. Vargas, 34, allegedly bought food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar and kept the other 50 cents by redeeming food stamps without selling any food. He managed the former Eddie's Grocery on the 1500 block of Mount Ephraim Avenue in the city's Whitman Park section, and allegedly carried out the scheme last year, officials said.

By Gary D. Alexander Seventeen years ago this August, President Bill Clinton signed into law Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), an antipoverty initiative involving "block grants" to the states that replaced the nation's formerly open-ended cash-welfare program. Hailed as a breakthrough, the 1996 legislation contained a provision that disqualified noncitizens from program eligibility unless they had lived in the United States for at least five years. Why the bipartisan reform didn't permanently preclude noncitizens from the program is not clear, yet even this five-year rule is among several provisions that many states have resisted implementing.

A Camden grocery store manager was arrested Thursday and charged with stealing more than $1 million from taxpayers in a food-stamp scheme. Alexander D. Vargas, 34, allegedly bought food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar and pocketed the other 50 cents after redeeming the food stamps without selling any food, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. It is unlawful to exchange food-stamp benefits for cash. Vargas managed the former Eddie's Grocery on the 1500 block of Mount Ephraim Avenue in the city's Whitman Park section, officials said.

THE CAUSES of poverty are complex and many. One cause, though, is emerging as a dominant factor in the record numbers of people living in poverty: Congress. This week, both the Senate and the House moved on a new farm bill, which determines the budget and policies for agriculture every five years or so. In addition to agriculture, it also funds the food-stamp program. On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee approved a $940 billion farm bill, a day after the Senate approved its own version.

KEVIN METZ says in a letter that the governor's comments are taken out of context and he doesn't mean what most people (probably Democrats) think he means. So, Kevin, what do you think he really meant when he cut food stamps for the poor? What do you think he really meant when he cut school funding? What do you think he really meant when he endorsed the voter-ID law? What do you think he really meant when he said he wouldn't endorse any taxes on the gas-drilling companies? What do you think he really meant by rejecting funding from the federal government for medical-insurance costs?

Instead of helping people who have fallen on hard times, Pennsylvania made it harder for them to get food stamps, and hundreds of families may be going hungry at times as a result. The state imposed an assets test to determine food-stamp eligibility a year ago. Since then, nearly 4,000 households have lost or been denied benefits after being deemed too wealthy. Another 111,000 households were rejected for failing to provide proper documentation for the test. Advocates for the poor say the assets-appraisal formula being used by the state Department of Public Welfare does more harm than good.

One year ago this week, Pennsylvania tied eligibility for food stamps to the assets people possess. Since then, nearly 4,000 households have lost or were denied benefits because they had too many financial resources, according to the Department of Public Welfare. In that same time, many more people - around 111,000 households - were denied benefits because they failed to provide proper documentation for the asset test. Advocates for the poor now say that by weeding out a relatively small number of people with too many assets, the Department of Public Welfare made getting food stamps so complicated that deserving low-income people became inundated by paperwork and lost their benefits.

YOUR RECENT editorial criticizing the asset test for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) left out many of the facts and wrongly implied that Gov. Corbett has a vision of "lazy BMW-driving scamsters" using food stamps. Although there are undoubtedly many misperceptions about those who rely on human services, the SNAP program asset test throws them out the window. Instead, it uses hard data to assure taxpayers that their money is being used only by those most in need.

It is unconscionable that Philadelphia has more people in what's called deep poverty than any other city among the nation's 10 largest. Almost 13 percent of city residents earn less than $5,700 a year for individuals, or $11,700 for a family of four, according to an analysis by The Inquirer and Temple University sociologist David Elesh. Poverty-line earners are paid twice as much, making these 200,000 Philadelphians the poorest of the poor. Unfortunately for them, the Corbett administration's disturbing economic policies have made it even harder for the poor to provide for their families.