Pa. broadens eligibility for food stamps

Javina Brown, who makes $9.75 an hour working for Boston Market, applied for food stamps in June but was denied. Her salary was $4 a month too high.

As of this week, however, Brown and others like her will be eligible for food stamps. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania has raised the income limit for the program.

"It's a blessing," said Brown, 32, who lives in South Philadelphia with her 10-year-old daughter and will get an estimated $360 a month in food stamps.

"I can go to the Italian Market and buy meat. I can feed my daughter well. I can do a lot with that money."

The change was made by the Department of Public Welfare, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, the new name given to the food-stamp program last year). All food-stamp money is federal, although states must pay half the administrative costs.

Effective immediately, the gross-income limit for food stamps rises from 130 percent of the federal poverty line to 160 percent. That means a family of four that makes as much as $33,924 a year is eligible. Previously the limit was $27,564.

The poverty line for such a family is $1,767 a month, or $21,204 annually.

"This is an exciting change that advocates have been pushing for a long time," said Rachel Meeks, food-stamp campaign manager for the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. "We're thrilled the state is doing this during a recession when people desperately need food assistance."

"It's a wonderful thing for seniors, working families, and the disabled," said Louise Hayes, a food-stamp expert with Community Legal Services.

The change "was done in part through coordination with advocates," said Stacey Witalec, a DPW spokeswoman in Harrisburg. "We wanted to capture more families that really have a need during a really difficult time."

In Philadelphia, 369,190 people - 26 percent of the population - were enrolled in the food-stamp program as of June, coalition figures show. That number will clearly rise with the program change, though neither Meeks nor Witalec could say by how much.

In the five-county area, 488,014 people got food stamps in June. Statewide, the number was 1.37 million, or 11 percent of the population, coalition figures show.

Until now, a two-person family like Brown's could make no more than $1,517 a month and still get food stamps. Brown makes $1,521, working 39 hours a week.

The new limit for two people is $1,867 monthly.

The money Brown will save on food will surely help her monthly budget. Her mortgage is $353, and she pays $600 for child care, according to figures supplied by Meeks.

The increased limit is expected to especially benefit low-income working families with high housing and child-care expenses, said Colleen Pawling, policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank on food-assistance policy.

"It's a very positive move," she said, adding that 18 other states have raised their gross-income limit recently. New Jersey plans to raise its limit from 130 percent to 185 percent Jan. 1, Pawling added.

From a public-health perspective, Pennsylvania's jump to 160 percent is beneficial because research shows that food stamps improve the nutritional value of the food that people can buy, said Mariana Chilton, a hunger expert and a professor at Drexel University's School of Public Health.

"Remember," Chilton said, "half of food-stamp recipients are children."

But, she added, "while food stamps are good medicine, the dosage is not enough."

She said food stamps still were not keeping up with the cost of food in the Philadelphia area.

"By the middle of the third week of the month, many Philadelphia families are out of food stamps," she said, adding that the change in food stamps "is not going to solve hunger."

Further complicating matters is an ongoing strain on the system: More people need food stamps than ever before, but there are fewer state workers to process the claims, meaning many applicants miss out on benefits, antihunger advocates say. With the boost in eligible families, those stresses will only increase, advocates add.

Ironically, Meeks said, many DPW caseworkers who help administer the food-stamp program are now applying for food stamps because their paychecks have been cut while the state's budget is in limbo.

This is not to say, she added, that the change won't make a difference in people's lives.

One Mount Airy bank teller, embarrassed to have her name published, will now get $250 in food stamps, she said. Before this week, she got none.

"This means I can go to the supermarket and stock up," said the woman, 27, who has a 7-year-old son and makes $10.85 an hour. "Now there'll be food in the house."