Open Arms

Eric Bost, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, wants to give food stamps a makeover. Stereotypes of drug addicts trading the stamps for a fix, or recipients cruising in Cadillacs are all too common-but they aren't fair, Bost says. "It is a nutrition program, and it meets the needs of hungry people," he says. In the past, the Food Stamp Program has focused largely on keeping the wrong people out, but Bost and others are now working to bring more of the right people in.

Since the welfare reforms of 1996, food stamps have been a critical source of assistance for low-wage workers. "It helps people move toward self-sufficiency," Bost says. But many who are eligible don't apply for the benefits. The rate of participation among eligible working families has hovered around 50 percent since 1997, even though the benefit amounts can be significant. In 2002, the average working family enrolled in the program received $210 per month.

Unaware that they're eligible for food stamps, turned off by the burdens of applying or deterred by the stigma associated with the benefits, low-income working families are turning up at emergency shelters and food banks instead, says Doug O'Brien, vice president for public policy and research at America's Second Harvest, a network of more than 200 food banks and relief organizations. "About 40 percent of the people we serve have an adult working full-time in the household. That wasn't true 15 years ago," he says. Under Bost's direction, Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, state agencies, anti-hunger advocates, community organizations and private-sector companies are collaborating to boost working families' enrollment in the food stamp program.

The effort marks a shift in the management of food stamps, from enforcement to outreach. The agency still considers protecting the program a priority, but says it has fraud under control. Agriculture conducts annual audits of each state's food stamp administration. The most recent numbers show less than two-and-a-half cents of every dollar the program spends is lost to fraud or error.

Shifting gears requires new services and technologies at every level of the program, which is funded and overseen by Agriculture but administered by state and local officials. "It's a matter of reengineering business systems," says Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.

The first step, Bost says, is awareness. At the same time the 1996 law made food stamps more important for low-income workers, it also led many to believe they would not qualify for the program. "The message in welfare reform was they need to get off welfare and get a job," says Randy Rosso, a senior policy analyst at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonpartisan anti-hunger organization. And since many thought of food stamps as a form of welfare, they assumed that holding a job would disqualify them from the Food Stamp Program.

Bost wants to divorce food stamps from associations with welfare. "We talk about it as a nutrition program," he says. The Food and Nutrition Service launched a media campaign that includes radio ads, posters and flyers depicting hard-working parents and their children. It also established partnerships with H&R Block-to recruit low-wage workers who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit-and retailers such as TJ Maxx, to distribute information to their lower-paid employees and make it easier for them to meet with caseworkers.

Another obstacle is the stigma associated with food stamps. By the end of July, all food stamp benefits will be administered on electronic transfer cards, a step advocates hope will go a long way toward reducing the embarrassment some recipients feel.

And this summer, FNS will submit a Federal Register notice asking for recommendations to rename the program, a step some states already have taken. In Oregon, the card for food stamps is called the Oregon Trail Card, and in New York City, it's the Food Card.

Bost has led the effort to make food stamps more user-friendly. FNS set up a toll-free hot line and an online prescreening tool to help people determine whether they're eligible before they trek to a local office. He also showed states how to simplify enrollment requirements under the 2002 Farm Bill, and distributed guides to encouraging participation in the program-which included tips such as extending office hours and using technologies such as online applications and paperless files.

"At the end of the day, what matters most in terms of changing a low-income family's perceptions is what happens when they walk through the door," says Dean. "That's the best advertising you're going to get."

In 2000, the average application for food stamps was 12 pages long, according to research by America's Second Harvest. In some states, applications went on for more than 30 pages. Forms required information about income from blood donations, garage sales and children's gifts, plus the value of every asset-even burial plots. "It had gone too far," O'Brien says. Second Harvest hasn't completed another study of the application forms yet, but O'Brien estimates they now average four pages.