Michigan may be 1st state to issue food stamps twice a month
Monday, March 10th, 2008LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan could become the first state in the nation to issue food stamps twice a month, making fresh produce and meat more available and giving grocery workers steadier hours.The state’s 1.2 million food stamp recipients — the highest number ever — now have their benefits added to a debit card within the first 10 days of the month. They then spend those dollars early in the month, typically in poorer, urban areas where residents may have limited transportation.
Each recipient gets an average $88 a month.
Retailers say the once-a-month assistance is spent early and usually all at once, causing them problems with staffing, cash flow and inventory. Advocates for the poor say food stamp recipients aren’t buying enough healthy, fresh food throughout the month.Legislation that would require the state to issue food stamp benefits two times a month may be approved by the state Senate this week. A similar measure sponsored by Democratic Rep. Andy Meisner of Ferndale is pending in the House. Recipients who get lower amounts of assistance would still get their payments just once a month.
“I’m trying to help people help themselves,” said bill sponsor Martha Scott, a Democratic senator from Highland Park. “I see people buying so much stuff the first of the month. You want to help people balance things out.”
Distributing food stamps twice monthly would give shoppers more flexibility and encourage them to buy fresher foods at least twice a month, she said.
While the legislation has backing from groceries and unionized workers, not everyone thinks more frequent payments is the solution. They wonder if the problem could be fixed instead by extending the period in which money is added to debit cards from 10 days to 20 days, which would spread out the days food stamp recipients shop.
The state Department of Human Services, which is neutral on the bills, is surveying food stamp recipients to find out their preference and how a switch would affect them. Results should be ready for lawmakers in April.
DHS spokeswoman Maureen Sorbet said the agency is prepared to go to twice-monthly payments or a longer period of payments depending on survey results, legislative developments and getting approval from the federal government, which pays for food stamps. A farm bill being negotiated in Congress could prove a stumbling block, since it includes a provision that would ban states from changing food stamp distribution from once a month.
Terri Stangl, executive director of the Saginaw-based Center for Civil Justice, credited the state for conducting the survey. Some recipients have limited transportation and prefer using their money to buy in bulk for better purchasing power, she said.
“I’m not convinced that with the amount of money they’re getting, they’re going to buy more fresh food,” Stangl said.
Scott, however, argued that issuing benefits once a month but extending the period in which they are handed out would help grocers and their employees, but not recipients.
Chris Michalakis, lobbyist for the 50,000 Michigan members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said grocery employees are pushed to work extra hard in the first 10 days of the month, then see their hours cut for the rest of the month.By distributing food stamps more equally over the month, he said, “workers will see a more even distribution of hours, as well as a greater availability of hours.”
The legislative debate comes at a time when 12 percent, or more than one in nine, Michigan residents get food stamps. Eighty percent of benefits go to households with children. The number of food stamp recipients in Michigan has doubled in six years, most likely because of the weak economy.
The real issue that needs to be addressed, Stangl said, is that food stamp households are able to buy less food because assistance has been eroding each year. The federal food stamp program assumes families have enough of their own money plus food stamps to spend $1.05 per person per meal — not enough for a health diet at today’s prices, she said.
Although the federal farm bill would boost money for food stamps, the price of fresh fruits, vegetables and leaner meats is rising faster than processed foods, making it harder for families to buy the healthier items, she said.
The food stamp bills are House Bill 4923 and Senate Bill 120. [source]
I may not be the smartest person in the world. I am wondering a few things. Do they have a limited time to spend the assistance? If the assistance is split up will each person’s allotment be the same or will they be getting a higher amount of allotment, or lower? Will this cost the taxpayers more in paperwork and salaries of DHS employees?
If they do not have a limited amount of time to spend their money then there should be no problem. The recipients are the ones who choose to spend it all at once. The government can’t help them there. If they are limited to an amount of time they can spend their assistance, then just extend the time to a full month, until they get their new allotment.
I understand the desire to buy in bulk. But what are they buying in bulk? At the grocery store in my town some of the meat is packaged in large packs called family packs. These are usually $0.20 cheaper per pound and those are the ones that have the best sales when they have meat sales. These are good things to buy in bulk. Buy the meat in bulk, freeze it ’til you need it.
About the $1.05 per person per meal, it can be done. Believe me, I have done it. But then again I use the money from my pay check I earn. I guess people are more careful with their own money than when they are using other people’s money. With the people who use the assistance to buy healthy food and then cash for beer, chips, pop, “doodli-doos” kid snacks and whatever else, they can use that cash to add to buying more healthy food. Don’t tell me that they don’t use cash to buy junk food, I have seen it.
As for Martha Scott wanting to “help people help themselves,” tell them to balance out their purchasing. Now, I do feel for the grocery workers. They are working their backsides off to earn living. I understand what it is like to have days where you are working overtime and tired out, then you end up having days where your hours are cut. But the government controlling people’s grocery habits ain’t the way to go. The assistance recipients need to control their own grocery habits.