Lost spending with food stamps?
Despite rising food prices and stagnant wages, Houston families are leaving a large portion of federal food assistance on the table.This story makes no sense. There is no indication that people are going hungry because they are not using food stamps. So, they are obviously spending what they need to spend to buy food and adding food stamps would not materially add to their diet.Half of eligible Houstonians are not receiving food stamps, costing the local economy $164 million in lost spending, according to estimates in a new report by an anti-hunger group.
That put Houston's food stamp participation rate near the bottom of the 24 urban areas surveyed by the Food Research and Action Center. San Antonio, the only other Texas city surveyed, has an estimated 72 percent participation rate.
"When millions more Americans are facing unemployment, shortened hours of work or reduced wages, failure to get food stamps to needy families is deepening the harm to them, hurting urban economies and worsening the recession," said Jim Weill, president of the center, which advocates policies to end domestic hunger and poor nutrition.
The average access rate was 68 percent. Detroit was the top-performer, with a 98 percent access rate. Denver's 42 percent participation rate was the lowest, followed by Los Angeles' 50 percent and Houston's 51 percent.
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By not using food stamps they are helping to save tax payer money making it available for other government needs. It appears that there are probably greater potential savings for tax payers if others would avoid using food stamps.
The purpose of food stamps is to make sure that people are not going hungry because of their misfortunes. They are not intended to pump up spending in a community. It would appear that communities with the lesser use of food stamps are probably enjoying more economic health.
That seems to be born out by the fact that Detroit is the highest user and the more prosperous communities are hovering around 50 percent or below. It is also some indication that the program may be more generous than it should be.
Unless a person been in the position where you needed to use food stamps to keep food on the table for their family, then he/she would have no basis to make the statement that there is no proof indication that people are going hungry. Children are going to bed hungry throughout the country because the process to obtain food stamps is difficult and demeaning to many people.
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