As of May 1^st, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett revived an asset test to applications for SNAP benefits. Besides income and expenses, applicants will now be asked to provide documentation on vehicles owned, cash, stocks, bonds, and all bank accounts. Some may think this is a great idea. On the surface, it seems like PA may be saving a whole lot of money by disqualifying applicants right off the bat.

And there are limitations. For one person, assets can add up to $5,500. For the elderly or disabled, $9,000 is allowed. One car, a house, and life insurance wouldn’t count. Neither would pensions or burial plots. But nest eggs certainly would.

Apparently, according to DPW Secretary Gary Alexander, these limitations were enacted in order to guarantee that SNAP benefits went to “the truly needy,” not the working poor, or families suffering cuts in pay or loss of jobs due to the recession[1]. Lawmakers are hoping that limited state funds will be saved by these new regulations, and these restrictions will help curb the rampant use of SNAP benefits by “not-so-needy” Pennsylvanians.

But making assets harder to come by isn’t the way to help Pennsylvanians. And it might not even help the state’s struggling budget.

Whenever I call the County Assistance office in Philadelphia, I always encounter motivated, able caseworkers who care about their clients, and who have about 0.06 seconds to spend with each client. The bottom line is that caseworkers are chronically overworked and understaffed.

Which is why asset testing is especially abrasive to someone relying on SNAP benefits. How in the world will my caseworker have time to assess the worth of my 2005 Hyundai Accent if she doesn’t have time to answer the phone when I call? The answer is, she won’t. She’ll need to stay overtime, or the office will have to hire more employees, and that money will come right out of the state’s nest egg that Corbett thinks he’ll build with this testing.

Asset tests are, for most states, a thing of the past. 36 states don’t even have them, and many states dropped such tests during the Great Recession. And people agree across party lines: “it has been opposed both by Democrats, who say it hurts the poor, and by Republicans, who say it penalizes those who save.”[2]

So New Jersey, when thinking about SNAP, please don’t look west. We’re too busy trying to determine who is “truly needy” over here.

Lou Garty first learned about the Food Bank of South Jersey through Camden United Way. It was listed as one of the county’s top charities to contribute to, and so Lou made a donation. Since then, she has been a regular donor and, for about a year now, a volunteer.

Lou grew up in central New Jersey, attended law school in Camden, and works locally as an attorney in Cherry Hill and Philadelphia. Asked what brought her to volunteer, Lou tells me she’s been watching the economy take its toll on working & unemployed people, children, and seniors. Hunger-related problems like poor physical & mental health, low self-esteem, lack of stability, etc., are disturbing.

Social policies are lacking. The misery caused by hunger & poverty is needless, says Lou. She feels a civic duty to help. And this is a charity that affects so many parts of people’s lives: wakefulness at work, child development, security, motivation, mental state, and more.

While she wishes she had more time to donate to FBSJ, Lou has helped the food bank a lot. She primarily works at event tables selling food, giving out t-shirts, or sharing information about the food bank—what we like to call “tabling.” Most recently, you would have seen Lou at the Walk Against Hunger. Not only did Lou encourage others to attend the walk, but she also raised the most funds in both 2011 and 2012.

This year, Lou donated over $1,400 to the Walk Against Hunger—an effort we felt earned her April’s Volunteer of the Month. As I talked to her, she seemed a little dissatisfied with that amount. But we at FBSJ were impressed and very appreciative. This was only the second year the Food Bank of South Jersey participated in the South Jersey Walk Against Hunger; the event is still in its infant stage of development. And considering that FBSJ can purchase almost 5 meals with one dollar, Lou’s donation has a lot of potential.

How did she do it? Well, Lou is a wonderful advocate for FBSJ. She talks about the FBSJ mission and her experiences here. When it came to the 2012 walk, Lou spoke to a handful of lawyer friends about the event and its purpose. They too were empathetic to our mission and agreed to sponsor Lou in the walk. She told them that the Food Bank of South Jersey makes a tremendous difference in the lives of South Jersey, and that when they donated they’d be “giving to a friend, a neighbor, a family member.”

South Jersey letter carriers are excited, FBSJ has volunteers scheduled to start sorting right away, and we hope you will demonstrate your support for the largest national food drive on its 20th anniversary this Saturday, May 12th. You have several opportunities.

1. First, be sure to tell friends & families how easy it is to contribute to FBSJ this Saturday.

2. Then, make sure to participate yourself, by leaving a few nonperishable food items out for your mail carriers.

3. Let us know when you see coverage about the event and where you saw it.

4. If your street has high participation, snap a quick photo of the mailboxes with all their donations.

5. Utilize Facebook (Food Bank of South Jersey) and Twitter (@foodbanksj) to talk about your donation to FBSJ and participation in Stamp Out Hunger (@stampouthunger). What did you donate? Why did you donate?

This May’s staff meeting was fairly brief. To our delight, we were informed that FBSJ distributed 3 Million pounds of food in the first quarter of 2012!

In other news, construction on the expansion is going as planned. Every once in a while throughout the days, we can feel the building rumble just a little. That rumble is the promise of greater capacity, better volunteer space, and more efficiently realized potential to feed the 170,000+ food insecure folks who live here in South Jersey. We also learned that a design company has offered to redo our interior pro bono! Swanky new food bank digs, here we come!

Also in the works, staff members have begun training on Primarius, a new software system that will be used for inventory, orders, and other reporting. Among many things, this new software will make pulling reports for analyzing easier as well as provide our network pantries/kitchens/shelters with a way to place food orders online! This is very exciting for all involved parties. We will shift from receiving faxed/snail-mailed/hand delivered, usually handwritten orders that are manually entered into the system used now to a faster, more accurate, better interfaced process.

We are also prepping for this Saturday’s 20th annual STAMP OUT HUNGER food drive! Today some of us drove to Campbell’s Soup Company for the kickoff event where United Way, National Association of Letter Carriers, Campbell, and FBSJ representatives spoke about the need for this drive and all the plans in the works for Saturday.

I got to meet Kathy, CLementon’s letter carrier food drive coordinator who called me a few days ago. She is excited and planning to double to poundage they collect this year from last year. Check out our photos from the kickoff!

At Food Bank of South Jersey, we have a variety of responses to hunger. The traditional response since our inception in 1985 has been to meet hunger head on by distributing food to people in our service area. As time carried on, we acquired the tools to tackle some of hunger’s engendered obstacles. Namely, the Healthy Living Initiative under our Programs Department aims to spread nutrition, cooking, knife skills, & food budgeting knowledge to South Jersey families & individuals. FBSJ is also home to a SNAP (food stamp) outreach program, through which staff assist eligible people obtain benefits that help them purchase groceries.

Now we have another way: Thanks to the ingenuity of Food Procurement Manager Ernie Guldin, FBSJ will be rescuing unpurchased Jersey peaches for a peach salsa product that will be sold in local South Jersey food stores. The initial retail batch of Just Peachy, hopefully the first in a line of sustainable local produce-based foods, will most likely be cooked up by the generous FBSJ partner Campbell’s Soup.

“This is so innovative, and I certainly see potential for this project to be replicated around the country,” Audrey Rowe, national administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told Collingswood Patch during a visit to the food bank in early May. “It’s addressing both the farmers’ and the food bank’s needs. We know that local farmers already donate to food banks, but this takes it one step further by creating a revenue stream for the food bank.”

Funds raised will support Food Bank of South Jersey carry out other means of decreasing hunger in the South Jersey area–where most recent data show that over 173,000 people are food insecure.

Stay tuned for more information about Just Peachy!

On Saturday, May 12th, you can help your local letter carriers Stamp Out Hunger to provide assistance to the millions of Americans who struggle with hunger. South Jersey alone is home to over 170,000 food insecure individuals.

Simply leave donations of non-perishable food items, like Campbell’s soup, canned meats & fish, canned vegetables & fruit, as well as pasta & rice, next to your mailbox before the time of your regular mail delivery.

Last year, the National Association of Letter Carriers collected over 100,000 pounds of food. This year, FBSJ is crossing fingers for 125,000 pounds from Stamp Out Hunger.

The Federation of New Jersey Food Banks is collaborating on a state-wide effort entitled Students Change Hunger. This food drive will serve as a competition for schools from pre-school through college throughout the state. The challenge centers on each school collecting food to help food insecure people in NJ.

Schools will be competing with same-sized schools across the state for recognition & the Governor’s Cup award, and registration is now open!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Background: Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are poised to take up SNAP legislation in the coming weeks. Bad choices could weaken SNAP/Food Stamps or do worse damage. It is critically important that your Senators and House Members hear a roar from constituents opposing proposals to cap or reduce funding, restrict eligibility or reduce benefits in SNAP – and that efforts should be made to strengthen, not weaken, the program. Members of Congress should also support efforts to strengthen TEFAP, so it too can better respond in times of increased need.

*Messages: *
*
Call Your Senators Toll Free: 1-877-698-8228* – *You will be directed to the offices of your Senators *
Call Your House Members: 202-225-3121 *(Capitol Switchboard)

*SNAP Message: * Every communication to your Members of Congress and the media should contain these three words: strengthen, protect, SNAP.

Urge your Members of Congress to speak out in support of SNAP at Committee hearings, caucus meetings, and on the floor of the House and Senate. Members of Congress must oppose “*any *”proposals that would change SNAP’s structure or reduce funding, restrict eligibility or reduce benefits (including limiting the “Heat and Eat” option states have). Members should also support SNAP improvements, including the President’s proposal to restore the cut in the ARRA boost. SNAP works – it is responding to increased need and must be strengthened, not weakened, in order to continue to provide critically-needed nutrition assistance.
*
TEFAP Message: *Urge your Members of Congress to support strengthening funding for TEFAP, which is a critical source of food for food banks and the clients they serve.

Don’t forget to share your voice online by tweeting and using your Facebook status update. Be sure to tag us in your messages and include the hashtag #SNAPworks.

*SNAP Talking Points:*

*• SNAP works. *Weakening SNAP would lead to more hunger and food insecurity, worse health and educational outcomes, and higher health costs.
*• Increasing SNAP benefits reduce hunger. *USDA researchers found that the boost to SNAP benefits included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) improved the food security of low-income households.
*• SNAP is responsive in times of need. *SNAP’s responsiveness to unemployment proved it to be one of the most effective safety net programs during the recent recession, providing families with a stable source of food.
*• SNAP helps the most vulnerable. *The average beneficiary household has an income of only 57 percent of the federal poverty guideline; and 84 percent of all benefits go to households with a child, senior, or disabled person.
*• SNAP lifts people out of poverty. *SNAP lifted 3.9 million Americans above the poverty line in 2010, including 1.7 million children and 280,000 seniors.
*• SNAP has – for decades – enjoyed bipartisan support. *Recent polling data from FRAC found that 77 percent of voters said that cutting SNAP would be the wrong way to reduce government spending. Every bipartisan deficit group in 2010-2011 has insulated it from cuts, including the Simpson-Bowles and Domenici-Rivlin commissions; the Gang of Six; and the August 2011 deficit agreement. In his FY2012 and FY2013 budgets the President has included proposals to strengthen the program.

*Toll Free number courtesy of Feeding America.

The above alert was originally written by the Food Research & Action Center

1. First up, Food Revolution Day is on May 19th, the Saturday after Stamp Out Hunger when letter carriers across the United States collect food donations for local food banks. The Day is “a chance for people who love food to come together to share information, talents and resources; to pass on their knowledge and highlight the world’s food issues. All around the globe, people will work together to make a difference.” Learn about the various ways you can participate at FoodRevolutionDay.com.

2. Next, let’s talk about SNAP. The federal food stamp program has long been one that food banks & advocates emphasize needs to be secured. SNAP assists mostly families with children and/or elderly. Most households that receive SNAP benefits include at least one employed adult and fall at or below the poverty line. SNAP gives people more buying power at the grocery store and generates community spending. And, now, the USDA has released a study showing that the program has a measurable effect: SNAP benefits have lowered poverty over the last 9 years, lifting income approximately 6% and decreasing the severity of poverty.

The measures used ”show that during 2000-09, SNAP benefits reduced the depth of poverty by an average of 10.3%, and the severity by an average of 13.2%. The progressive nature of SNAP – where families with lower incomes receive larger benefits than similarly-sized families with higher incomes – explains its greater impact on depth and severity than on the simple poverty rate.” Read about the Department of Ag’s conclusions here and here. Or read the report here.

3. Another big focus among anti-hunger organizations is child hunger. This past Saturday, the Food Network in support of Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign aired “Hunger Hits Home” –a 1 hour documentary that provides a first-hand look at the childhood hunger crisis in the United States today. During the 60 minute presentation, food pantry organizers, teachers, NYC Coalition Against Hunger director Joel Berg, campaign advocate Jeff Bridges, and food-insecure families show you what’s really going on with families across the country. Children today are in danger of becoming the lost generation.

Check out Food Network’s viewer guide and read Joel Berg’s child hunger report, Feeding Opportunity.

4. Last up, don’t forget to come out for the South Jersey Walk Against Hunger this Saturday! We can’t wait to see you. Every dollar raised for the event can purchase nearly 5 meals. And every person who shows up demonstrates support for the local struggle to decrease hunger. For deets, go here.

Rock on, readers.