Food & Nutrition [Volume 9, Number 4]

              Volume 9
People Talk
About Using
Food Stamps
Food
Programs:
Do They Work?
Need to Know
More About
Buying Food?
When
Disaster
Strikes ...
For Building Use Only ]
o.epos\tory
A lot of changes have been taking
place in the Food Stamp Program
this year. Six people-one former
participant and five current
participants-talk about some of
these changes. Page 2
How far have we come in
eliminating hunger and malnutrition
in this country? A long way, say
physicians from the Field
Foundation. But there's still room
for progress. Page 10
Getting the most nutrition for each
food dollar can be a challenge­especially
for low income families.
Here are some suggestions on how
to save and where to go for advice.
Page 13
When disaster strikes, people need
help fast. Would you know what to
do to get emergency food aid to
those who need it? Page 17
P OPtRTV o~ I w=
LIBRARY
AJ r. 1 S 1Q?9
People Talk About
Using Food Stamps
Ever wonder what it's like to use
food stamps? To pull out stamps in­stead
of cash at the cash register? To
have your life change because laws
change in Washington?
Because of the Food Stamp Act of
1977, a lot of changes have been
taking place in the Food Stamp Pro­gram.
In a series of studies, the De­partment
of Agriculture will be exam­ining
the impact of these changes
and the effectiveness of the Food
Stamp Program.
At times, however, the "whole
story" of "program effectiveness and
impact" eludes the pages of reports.
The people who use food stamps
have a lot to say about the program,
and they're worth listening to.
In the following interviews, six.
people-a former food stamp partici­pant
and five current participants­talk
about food stamps. They tell
how they're dealing with changes in
the program-like the elimination of
the purchase requirement and how
it's changed the way they budget and
buy. While their reactions to the
changes vary, they have in common
deep feelings about living on food
stamps.
2 Food and Nutrition
Dorothy
Dorothy used food stamps off and
on for 6 years. At the time of the
interview, she was supporting her six
children through the GET A job pro­gram
and was no longer getting food
stamps.
She first applied for the program
when her husband left several years
ago. Having had no previous training,
she found it hard to find a job.
"It was a difficult time," she said,
"but we all stayed together. We
figured that was the only way we
were going to make it.
"Food stamps were good for me,"
she continued. "I'd get them once a
month, and I'd know I had that much
food money coming to me that month,
and I just had to budget accordingly.
"The family helped out a lot. The
children wouldn't go into the re­frigerator
on their own. When they
wanted something, they would ask.
And although that's a good thing,
that's bad, too. It's not a normal way
to live, really. But being on assistance
makes things different anyway.
"You have to live different than
other people," she said, pausing.
"You feel different. You feel different
going into the store and pulling out
food stamps rather than money. It's a
terrible way to live. It really is."
Even though she no longer partici­pates
in the Food Stamp Program,
Dorothy continues to be active in a
food stamp client relations group
sponsored by the local department of
social services. Her work as chair­man
of the group has given her a lot
of insight into the problems of food
stamp users.
People keep hoping, she said, that
August 1979
somehow, somewhere, money is
going to turn up, and they won't have
to ask for assistance. "You just keep
thinking something's going to happen
to relieve the situation. By the time
people show up at the food stamp of­fice,
it's often a last ditch measure
and the pressure's on.
"It's frightening. It's so frightening.
You almost forget what you're doing,
and you almost can't fill that form
out."
The new application forms, she
said, are an improvement, however.
They are "easier to read. They're
printed up better. They're written
better. Easier to understand."
A crisis facing Dorothy at the time
of the interview was whether or not
she would be able to keep the GET A
job that had kept her off assistance
and food stamps for the past year.
"Employment is bad right now,"
she said, "and I'm still in the job mar­ket
where just about everybody has
more skills than me.
"But I have a better feeling now
after having worked in the GET A pro­gram
for a year. I've learned some
things, and I've gotten more respect
for myself-my children have and my
family has, too.
"If I have to go back on assist­ance,"
said Dorothy, "I will be eligible
for food stamps. And that's one thing
that frightens me. I am not going
back on assistance and that's all
there is to it. No, I'm not, no matter
what-not assistance or food
stamps, no indeed."
And what if the GETA job doesn't
come through and she can't find
another one right away? Will the
stigma she feels in using food stamps
be too high a price to pay?
Dorothy smiled and shook her head
slightly. "Not for going hungry. You
have to swallow your pride. I've had
to do it enough. But I don't like it. I
never will get used to it. I don't know
whether people ever really do. They
may say they do but ... you don't
really get used to having to ask, and
ask, and ask."
''There's a tendency in
government to use big words
and small print. And I'm trying
to get that turned around.
Small words and big print­so
that people can under­stand
what they see.
"People are scared to death
of going into a government
office. They can't understand
the forms. They don't know
what the forms mean. They're
absolutely terrified-won't go.
And we understand that. So
we're changing the program
to accommodate the needs of
these people-people who've
been literally left behind. I
mean they've been lost. And
they're coming. They're com­ing
in the program now.''
Secretary of Agriculture,
Bob Bergland
3
Veroncia
Like Dorothy, Veroncia has strong
feelings about using food stamps.
"Let's face it, you're different," she
said. "You've become, well ... like a
goldfish in a bowl.
"You may know that you're
working-like in my case-and that
you're doing an honest job and you're
not receiving stamps for any of the
reasons that the magazines love to
write about ...
"You may know you've not all of
your life been trying to beat the sys­tem
and that [you] do deserve food
stamps. You have a right to them.
"You may know all of these things.
However, when you're standing there
in the cold daylight and somebody's
looking at your groceries and think­ing,
'There's one of those people,'
you feel real bad about having to use
food stamps."
Cashiers are sometimes the
biggest problem for clients, said
Veroncia.
"One cashier didn't see why ... I
should be allowed to buy meat!"
Veroncia's husband was disabled
several years ago. For a while the
family lived off workers' compensa­tion.
That ran out. Then their cash ran
out. The rent was due and the chil­dren
had to eat, says Veroncia, so
they went on assistance.
Veroncia has mixed feelings about
changes taking place under the new
Food Stamp Program. Her allotment
has been reduced, and she thinks
some people might have trouble
budgeting their money now that they
aren't required to spend some of it on
4
food stamps. "I know I'm capable of
taking that money and buying food
because I know I have to,'' she said.
But, she added, there may be times
when it's hard, especially when there
are other pressing expenses. When
your choice is having your gas cut off
or using your food money to pay a
bill, she said, you've got a tough de­cision.
"During the snow, if I had to opt
which one I'd do, I'd take the gas.
Later on, my food box may be empty
and if I've spent the money and got
gas-I've got heat but I don't have
any food."
At the same time, Veroncia sees a
tremendous advantage to the new
"no pay" system. It's quicker.
"You can go in ... and you don't
have to wait. And if you are in a long
line, the line moves fast. It may seem
strange that swiftness should be one
of the things that make [the new
system] likeable to some people, but
you have to take into consideration
that some people have to get a ride.
"And, some have to get a ride with
an impatient driver. I mean, that
doesn't seem important, maybe, to
everyday folks, but if you're living in a
world of welfare or social services,
then that's important."
Caroline
Caroline is a working mother with
two children. She and her son "Little"
were down at the social services of­fice
early on the day of the interview.
They'd just been burned out of their
apartment.
They lost about everything in the
fire. "But we'll be okay," she said.
"We'll just find a new place and get
some rugs and throw some pillows on
the floor for sitting."
Caroline finds the new "no pay"
system suits her just fine.
"I like it ... if my check didn't come
at the right time [under the old sys-tem]
I'd have to find a way to get the
money together to get my food
stamps .... This way, I don't have to
worry about it.
"Also, I like this way because ...
you have to have things to cook
with-like aluminum foil-and stuff
to bag the food in. [Now] you can buy
that without all that money being tied
up in food stamps.
"I like it, I really like it .... A lot of
people squawk about it, but I don't
understand. Why not just put together
the money you used to put out to buy
the food stamps? Just say well, okay,
this is money for my food stamps that
I would normally pay for. So, you
know, use that."
Caroline "works at budgeting."
"I believe in buying in quantity,"
she said. "If I go to the store to get
some sugar and I know how much
money I have to work with, I buy 5
pounds. Then the next time I don't
have to buy any sugar. Without much
money, that's what you have to do.
"And, I'll go to the store and I'll get
a big pack of family chicken-and
this is where my aluminum foil comes
in-and I'll break it down .... I know
I've got to feed three, and one piece
for each usually does us. Then, the
next month I don't have to stock up
on chicken because I've done that ...
I do just like I would if I had money."
A big priority for Caroline right now
is developing job skills so she can get
a better job and support her family on
her own.
"I want to have a trade," she said.
"Something so I can go anywhere in
the United States and still take my
trade with me. Because, eventually,
I'm going to make it. I won't have to
come down here anymore.
"I want to have a home, a good job.
I just want to live real nice and be
self-supporting and travel. That's
what I want to do.
"I don't even want to know what
this place looks like. I don't even want
to come in here again. It gives you
kind of a bad feeling. It does. To me, I
just look at it and say 'I don't like it.'
But, I say, I know what I have to do."
Food and Nutrition
I
6
Joe Stone
"Let's put it this way. It's no shame
to be poor," said Joseph Stone in a
slow gravelly voice. "It's no disgrace.
It's very inconvenient. But, after all,
the poor's got to live the same as the
rich."
Joseph Stone's been around a lot
and seen a lot. He saw action in the
South Pacific during World War II as
a gunner with the Air Force. He's
worked in mining camps. He's worked
in lumbering. For a time, he lived out
West. That's where he met his wife.
They raised their children together
and they did pretty well.
Then Stone got sick. For a long
time he's been plagued with a bad
heart and high blood pressure, and
he's had cancer. It's slowed him
down, he says, and sometimes it
really gets to him. "But the Lord gave
me my life and I suppose I have to do
the best I can with it."
He gets money now from the Vet­eran's
Administration, and he's also
qualified for public assistance-but
he won't take it. It's just too much
trouble, he said, shaking his head.
He's adamant. "I just won't go
through that again."
But the day of the interview he was
applying for food stamps. He's used
them before and he likes them.
"Food stamps are like everything
else," he said. "In my opinion you
take food stamps like a dollar. If you
use them the right way, you can
manage. But you can't afford to take
food stamps and go out there and buy
a steak and expect to stretch 'em.
You gotta buy sensible."
Stone takes pride in his wife's
cooking and her sense of economy.
"We buy dry beans, and we buy
potatoes and canned food-stuff like
that, you know what I mean.
"She won't waste a crumb. I mean
she won't waste a crumb. And she
takes potatoes, boils 'em, mashes
'em, and dips 'em in corn meal, and
you've never tasted anything so deli­cious
in your life."
Stone is glad he doesn't have to
buy his stamps anymore. "I know
when you had to pay for 'em, it was
just like everything else. Sometimes it
was hard. 'Cause you still had to put
cash money out. By the time I'd pay
the rent and buy firewood-! have to
use wood and wood has gone up ter­rible
... By not having to pay for
food stamps, it gives me a little more
money to help out with other things.
That should make it a whole lot
easier."
Stone doesn't take much heed of
criticisms of the Food Stamp Pro­gram.
"Everybody's entitled to their
own thoughts, I imagine. But when
you sit down and think about it­suppose
there weren't such things as
stamps. It would be more difficult
than what it is now. In my opinion,"
he said with a slow nod, "I think
they're a great help."
Food and Nutrition
August 1979 7
The Bradbys
"Bijaw, bijaw, tictaw." In case you
don't recognize that, it's Chick­ahominy
for "good morning, good
morning, how are you?"
Give Kermit W. Bradby, 70, half a
chance and he peppers the air with
sounds from his past. Know how to
say butter, he challenges- "doesha­bamuti."
How about syrup-"see­waga."
Or sweet potatoes­"
sweeall."
Ever tried Indian bread cooked in
ashes, he asks. He can cook it. He
can cook things, he teases with de­light,
you might dare to look at, but
you wouldn't dare to try.
Kermit Bradby is a full-blooded
Chicahominy Indian. He and his wife,
Anna, are two of the many rural el­derly
people who have found they
can now "afford" to join-or
rejoin-the Food Stamp Program.
The Bradbys used to use food
stamps, but they had to stop because
the purchase price "got too high."
Because of conflicting and pressing
demands of other bills, Anna Bradby
explains, it was difficult to come up
with the $80 needed to buy $100
worth of coupons. "It put us in a real
bind," she said.
When they went off stamps, Kermit
ended up taking a job down on the
river, working Saturdays and Sun­days
despite his poor health. In re­cent
years, he has suffered from a
heart condition.
It wasn't easy. But then the Brad­bys
have never had it easy. Being In­dian
wasn't easy, says Bradby.
Ironically, Bradby didn't begin
learning about the details of his In­dian
heritage and the "old history"
until he moved to Philadelphia as a
young man-and discovered the
Philadelphia library.
"They use to help me find books
and things that I wanted to read up on
because we didn't get no education
hardly," he said. "Seventh grade was
all we could get. When we finished
seventh grade we were done.
"Going to school is good," he
August 1979
added, "but you need experience.
You need to search and find out
about these things-and that's what I
did!"
Experience is one thing Kermit
Bradby is not short on. He worked in
a galvanizing plant in Philadelphia­that's
where he met his wife, who
sold sandwiches to the men on the
weekends. When he was in his
thirties, he was almost killed in an
accident at the plant when an oil
burner exploded. After that, he said,
"my nerves were shot."
He moved back to Virginia with his
family. Over the years, he's hauled
piling, cut wood, worked on an air­base,
driven a caterpillar, steered a
barge, and fished for herring-pulling
up as many as 300,000 fish at a time
he says. "I'm, tellin' you, my back
should be rubber instead of bone.
And, you don't want to go down there
dressed up-you come up nothin' but
mud!"
After a number of heart attacks, he
was forced to ease out of working.
And that's when food stamps first be­came
important. Although the Brad­bys
raise chickens and grow some of
their own food, they still didn't have
enough to eat right. And food stamps
helped. "Until the price got too high,"
said Anna, "it helped me real good."
The Bradbys got a call from their
local food stamp office after the pur­chase
requirement was dropped. The
food stamp staffer explained the new
system and asked Kermit and his wife
if they would like to take advantage of
the program again since they were
still eligible.
"I think it's great," says Anna
Bradby, "because you don't have to
put that $80 out. You can keep it ...
you can use some of your money to
buy soap powder and things.
"I think it's a good idea they got it
fixed," she adds. "It does help. A
whole lot." D
by Dianne D. Jenkins
' ' Elimination of the pur­chase
requirement has re­sulted
in a noticeable increase
in participation and almost all
of the increase has been in
rural areas. There's been vir­tually
no increase in New York
or Philadelphia or Puerto Rico
or Los Angeles. It's been rural
Georgia, it's been rural gener­ally,
but more in the south
than the north.
"Just exactly why, I guess I
couldn't tell you with any pre­cision.
But my guess is that
these rural people in many
cases didn't have the 20
bucks necessary to buy the
$80 worth of food stamps­they
just didn't have the 20
bucks. And now that we don't
require the $20, they're able to
get the $60 in food stamp
bonuses.,'
Bob Bergland,
Secretary of Agriculture
9
Food Programs:
Do They Work?
"Wherever we went and wherever
we looked, we saw children in signifi­cant
numbers who were hungry and
sick, children for whom hunger is a
daily fact of life, and sickness in many
forms, an inevitability. The children
we saw were more than just mal­nourished.
They were hungry, weak,
apathetic. Their lives are being short­ened.
They are visibly and predict­ably
losing their health, their energy,
their spirits. They are suffering from
hunger and disease, and directly or
indirectly, they are dying from
them-which is exactly what 'starva­tion'
means."
In 1967, a team of physicians from
the Field Foundation shocked the
Nation with a report of widespread
hunger in America. In testimony to
Congress in June 1967, the physi­cians
documented what they had
seen during visits to poverty-stricken
parts of the United States. Their
findings dramatized the urgent need
to get food help to the poor.
Over the past 10 years, Congress
has responded with more than a
dozen food aid laws, expanding and
changing existing Federal food pro­grams
and setting up new ones. Con­gress
now appropriates more than $9
billion annually for these programs.
But do Federal food programs
really work? Are there fewer hungry
people now? Looking for answers to
these questions, in 1977 the Field
Foundation sent out another group of
medical teams. The teams included
four physicians from the original
group, and they returned to many of
the same areas the physicians had
visited in the late sixties.
This spring their findings were re­leased
in a widely publicized report,
Hunger in America: The Federal Re-
10
sponse, written by Nick Kotz, Pulit­zer-
prize winning journalist and au­thor
of Let Them Eat Promises: The
Politics of Hunger in America.
Compared to
10 years ago
"Our first and overwhelming
impression," the doctors stated in the
report, "is that there are fewer
grossly malnourished people in this
country today than there were 1 0
years ago ... where visitors 1 0 years
ago could quickly see large numbers
of stunted, apathetic children with
swollen stomachs and the dull eyes
and poorly healing wounds charac­teristic
of malnutrition-such children
are not to be seen in such numbers."
This change, the doctors said, is
not a result of a general improvement
in living standards or decrease in un­employment.
"In fact, the facts of life
for Americans living in poverty remain
as dark or darker than they were 1 0
years ago. But in the area of food
there is a difference. The Food Stamp
Program, the nutritional component of
Head Start, school lunch and break­fast
programs and to a lesser extent
the Women-Infant-Children (WIC)
feeding programs have made the
difference."
Between May and September
1977, the medical teams traveled
nationwide, visiting many of the worst
pockets of poverty-from rural Mis­sissippi
and Arkansas to the hills of
Appalachia and the urban ghettos of
the Bronx. Their conclusions, writes
Nick Kotz, suggest that "food aid
programs may represent one of the
unsung yet most effective anti­poverty
efforts of the last 15 years."
"We are not dealing with an inef­fective
tool of public policy but an in­adequately
used one," Dr.Gordon
Harper says in the report. "Congress,
the President, and the public should
know that the very effectiveness of
such programs, where they do work,
makes it a greater national tragedy
that many people remain unreached."
Still room
for progress
The doctors' accounts "by no
means represent an unqualified op­timistic
endorsement of present food
aid programs or of the current nutri­tional
health of the America people,"
Kotz says, commenting on the teams'
findings. "But," he adds, the doctors
"fastened onto food aid as one con­crete
area in which they believe there
has been significant progress and
opportunity for more."
There are still many unanswered
questions, Kotz says. While we know
that Federal food programs have ad­dressed
the problem of hunger and
severe malnutrition, "a more complex
question is whether subtler forms of
malnutrition ... among the poor have
been lessened significantly."
"Again," said Kotz, "the gross evi­dence
suggests an improvement.
However, the nation continues to be
plagued with a lack of sophisticated
data about its nutritional well-being."
Hunger in America: The Federal
Response takes a detailed look at the
findings of the Field Foundation study
and other recent studies. The follow­ing
summary includes highlights of
those studies, the author's com­ments,
and recommendations of the
Field Foundation team.
WIC-dramatic
nutrition gains
One of the newest food programs is
the Special Supplemental Food Pro­grain
for Women, Infants and Chil­dren,
commonly known as WIC. Op­erated
by local health facilities, the
program provides nutritious food
supplements to pregnant, breast­feeding
and postpartum women, as
Food and Nutrition
J
J
well as to infants and children up to
their fifth birthday. To participate,
mothers and children must be indi­vidually
certified as "nutrition risks"
because of dietary need and in­adequate
income.
According to Katz, WIC "repre­sents
a unique effort to combine
preventive health care, nutrition
supplementation and education, and
there is evidence all three purposes
are being met." Studies of the WIC
program by the Center for Disease
Control and researchers in individual
States, Katz says, "highlight some
dramatic nutritional gains:"
• Among WIC participants in
Arizona, for example, there was an
81-percent reduction in anemia, an
82-percent reduction in underweight,
and a 64-percent improvement in
stature.
• In Michigan, 30 percent of the
women were anemic before joining
the program, 6 percent after.
• In Oregon, 13 percent of the chil­dren
were anemic before coming on
the program, 1 percent after.
• In Pennsylvania, the infant death
rate was 1 0.6 percent before mothers
joined the program, zero after.
"Because of limited funding," Katz
says, "the program is now available
in only 40 percent of the nation's
counties and serves only 1.2 million
out of 8 million eligible participants.
The Field Foundation doctors rec­ommended
not only that the program
be expanded, but that eligibility cri­teria
be liberalized so all poor women
and infants can be enrolled, not
just those with proven malnutrition."
A look at
child nutrition
The Federal Government provides
cash and donated food assistance to
help schools, child care centers,
summer recreation facilities and other
institutions serve nutritious meals to
August 1979
' ' ... the facts of life for
Americans living in poverty
remain as dark or darker than
they were 1 0 years ago. But in
the area of food there is a dif­ference.
The Food Stamp Pro­gram,
the nutritional compo­nent
of Head Start, school
lunch and breakfast pro­grams,
and to a lesser extent
the Women-Infant-Children
(WIC) feeding programs have
made the difference. ' '
Field Foundation medical team
children. While Hunger in America
does not go into great detail about
any one of the child nutrition pro­grams,
the report does take a brief
look at the effectiveness of school
breakfast, school lunch and child care
food programs.
Recent research, the report notes,
documents both the need for schools
to offer breakfast and the effective­ness
of school breakfast programs in
"filling important nutritional needs."·
A nationwide study by the Con­gressional
Budget Office (CBO)
found that one out of every three
schoolchildren leaves home "with
less than two-thirds of the needed
calories, iron, and vitamins A and C."
A Washington State study found that
significant numbers of children come
to school without breakfast and that
these children have "significantly
lower intakes of calcium, phosphorus,
riboflavin and ascorbic acid."
Findings like these, says Kotz, "are
particularly alarming considering
well-accepted research studies which
show that children without adequate
breakfast do not function as well as
their schoolmates either emotionally
or in cognitive learning abilities."
Both the Congressional Budget Of­fice
and Washington State studies
showed a marked improvement in the
nutritional status of children taking
part in the school breakfast program.
"Beyond any question," says Katz,
"the nutritional well-being of poor
children would be improved by sub­stantial
expansion of the school
breakfast program, but such expan­sion
is vigorously opposed on the
ground that providing breakfast is a
parental responsibility and because
of the reluctance of school boards
and administrators to take on another
responsibility."
In contrast to the breakfast pro­gram,
Katz reports that "the nutri­tional
effectiveness of the present
school lunch program has been
questioned in recent years."
Quoting a Government Accounting
Office study of the lunch program in
New York City, Cleveland, and Los
Angeles, Katz notes that the lunches
failed to provide the required one­third
of recommended dietary allow­ances
for 8 of 13 essential nutrients.
But that doesn't mean, Katz says,
that the lunch program fails to have
an impact. The benefits of "an ade­quate
free lunch program for poor
children were shown dramatically in a
program in Baltimore in which 5,284
children were studied over a 4-year
period. After introduction of the free
lunch program, the children scored
impressive nutritional gains."
Similar gains have been noted for
low-income children taking part in the
Child Care Food Program. "There
was a stark contrast between the
bright-eyed, happy and alert little
ones we saw in Head Start centers,"
said Dr. Aaron Shirley of the Field
medical team, "and the dull, listless
infants and children we saw who did
not participate."
How effective
are food stamps?
Field Foundation doct9rs and ob­servers,
Katz reports, "believe that
11
food stamps are making a crucial
difference in improving the quality of
the lives of many poor Americans."
And statistics indicate, he says,
that the great majority of food stamp
users are, indeed, very poor. A study
recently released by the Congres­sional
Budget Office showed that 87
percent of food stamp benefits go to
households with gross incomes of
less than $6,000.
There's also evidence, he says,
that the Food Stamp Program has
been effective in increasing the
amount of Federal aid going to the
Nation's "worst pockets of poverty"­the
256 counties identified in 1968 as
"hunger counties" because they had
high percentages of poor people,
high infant mortality rates, and either
weak food programs or none at all.
Quoting a Department of Agricul­ture
study by economist William
Boehm, Kotz points that food aid ex­penditures
in these "hunger coun­ties"
have increased from $26 per
person in 1969 to $127 per person
today.
But exactly how does this increase
in food aid translate into increased
food purchases? And what is the pre­cise
affect of that aid on nutritional
well-being? These questions about
the program's effectiveness are
harder for researchers to answer
specifically.
Few studies, Kotz says, have as­sessed
the actual nutritional impact of
food stamps. But recent research
should help dispel the myth of the
food stamp user who spends his
stamps on expensive steaks. Donald
West, an agriculture economist at
Washington State University, made a
comparative study of food buying
habits of people who use food stamps .
and people who do not.
The study showed, says Kotz, that
"the family on food stamps allocates
its food dollar in the same general
categories as the middle class family,
12
but economizes by buying less ex­pensive
foods."
"There is less conclusive evi­dence,"
he adds, " ... that the poor
understand all the fine points of food
and nutrition after receiving food
stamps." The poor need nutritional
guidance, he concludes, as do people
of all economic levels: "Nutritional ig­norance
transcends class or eco­nomic
lines."
Not without
problems
While the Food Stamp Program
has made definite gains, it is not
without problems, according to Kotz.
" ... Studies show that program
participation has been limited by fail­ure
to inform eligible people about
benefits, by the restrictive and hostile
attitudes of program administrators,
by limited access to food stamp is­suance
offices, by the high cost of
purchasing stamps, and the stigma
associated with participating in a
welfare program .... The Field
Foundation doctors constantly en­countered
these problems in the
course of their investigations."
The 1977 food stamp law-taking
effect this year-offers potential
remedies to a number of these par­ticipation
problems, says Kotz. The
law eliminates the purchase require­ment,
which until now has kept many
of the neediest people from par­ticipating.
The law also simplifies ap­plication
procedures to make it easier
for eligible people to apply for and get
stamps.
Kotz is enthusiatic about the extent
to which the new law seeks to specify
the rights of food stamp clients. "This
Bill of Rights for food stamp users is
unprecedented in welfare-style
legislation," he says.
An unusual
opportunity
The Food Stamp Program, Kotz
concludes, "provides an unusual op­portunity
to take one of the programs
of the 1960's which actually produced
results and to build on that success.
Can public administration respond to
widespread human needs? The Food
Stamp Act establishes the tools for
effective public policy. Will these
tools be used to maximum advan­tage?
"This can be accomplished," says
Kotz, "if local advocacy groups or­ganize
campaigns to bring nonpar­ticipants
into the programs and to in­sure
that local officials administer
programs fairly and efficiently; if state
and local governments are compelled
to implement effective outreach pro­grams
specifically for the elderly,
children, minority groups, the 'work­ing
poor,' and others; and if the fed­eral
government provides funds and
strictly enforces its rules and regula­tions
to ensure that all Americans are
well fed."
In addition, Kotz notes suggestions
by Field Foundation doctors that in­clude:
• Using poor people as outreach
workers.
• Encouraging food stamp users
and school food service people to
buy from small farmers and from
agriculture and food cooperatives
run by and for the poor.
• Encouraging nonprofit organiza­tions
to serve as issuance agents
for food stamps.
The adequacy of food and other
anti-poverty programs, according to
the report, depends "in considerable
part both on the attitude of local
communities and the. extent to which
poor families and minorities are in­cluded
as participating citizens."
"For those who worry about
charges that federal aid encourages
a 'dole' mentality which discourages
people from work," Kotz says, "it
must be said that for millions this food
aid contributes the nutrition neces­sary
to compete for and hold a job."
"The entitlement of all needy
Americans to an adequate diet," Kotz
concludes, "is a goal that is within our
capability. If we will only reach for it." D
by Dianne D. Jenkins
Food and Nutrition
When it comes to buying food, just
about everybody has the same
problem: to get the best and most
nourishing food at the lowest possible
prices. It takes careful planning and
wise shopping-and it's not always
an easy task.
For people with low incomes, the
challenge is especially great. As
USDA nutrition coordinator Audrey
Cross explains, these people must
fight a special battle of their own.
"Because people with low incomes
can't spend a lot of money for food,"
she says, "they don't have the
'nutritional cushion' those with more
money have.
"More money can buy greater
amounts of foods," she explains,
"and as the quantity of food available
increases, so does the chance that
nutritional needs are being met. The
low-income person cannot afford to
make mistakes."
Teaching low-income people how
to help themselves is the goal of
many existing programs and services
across the country. Approaches run
the gamut from direct one-to-one
teaching to more independent ways
to learn by doing.
Cooperative Extension:
nationwide education
One valuable resource is the Co­operative
Extension Service, one of
the largest informal education net­works
in the world. A partnership of
Federal, State and local govern­ments,
Cooperative Extension deliv­ers
practical, problem-solving in­struction
to people of all ages and
economic levels-in urban as well as
in rural areas.
State Extension programs are ad­ministered
by land-grant universities
in cooperation with individual 'Coun­ties.
The U.S. Department of Ag­riculture's
Science and Education
Administration has responsibility for
Federal Extension.
County Extension home econo­mists
teach family-related topics,
including food and nutrition. Almost
every U.S. county has at least one
13
Extension home economist. These
home economists are knowledgeable
about buying nutritious foods at low
cost.
Through news articles, radio and
television programs, classes, and
publications, they help families
plan and prepare nourishing, well­balanced
meals, suited to their par­ticular
needs and budgetary consid­erations.
The home economists work out of
county CES offices. Their help is
available for the asking.
"Go to your county office and take
advantage of the home economists'
expertise," advises Extension nutri­tionist
Evelyn Spindler. "Also, check
into the wide variety of instructional
materials available there."
Many useful publications are avail­able
free (single copies only) from
these offices. For family food budg­eting,
some particularly useful ones
are: Family Fare -A Guide To Good
Nutrition; Your Money's Worth In
Foods; and Food For Thrifty
Families.
Local extension offices can be
found in the white pages of the phone
directory under the listings for the
county government or for the land­grant
university. They may go by the
name of "Cooperative Extension
Service," or "Agricultural Extension
Service."
For families
with low incomes
For low-income people, the Exten­sion
Service offers special help
through its Expanded Food and Nu­trition
Education Program. EFNEP
hires and trains nutrition aides, who
specialize in working with families­especially
families with young
14
EPNEP aide Jane
Scheid (right) offers
some food buying
advice to two Virginia
homemakers.
children-living in or near poverty.
The aides' purpose is to teach
people how to achieve nutritionally
adequate diets, and their approach is
personal, whether they are teaching
clients individually or in small groups.
The aides help families understand
the importance of food to health, and
they offer practical lessons on menu
planning, budgeting, shopping, food
preparation, safety, and storage.
More than half the people served
by EFNEP are food stamp users.
Aides visit
families' homes
There are now more than 5,200
EFNEP aides working throughout the
country. Most frequently, the aides
teach homemakers individually or in
small groups. Occasionally, they also
go with homemakers to the super-market
and give on-the-spot lessons
in food buying.
Jane Scheid is an EFNEP aide in
Fairfax County, Virginia. She is
trained and supervised by Denise
Shaw, a home economist for the
Fairfax County Extension Service.
Like other EFNEP aides, Scheid re­sides
in the community in which she
teaches, so she has a special under­standing
of her clients' problems. The
number of families she works with
varies, but her caseload is low
enough to allow her to make home
visits every other week or so.
Patricia Tapp and her sister-in-law
Wanda Shifflett are two of the people
Scheid has been visiting regularly for
the last few months. They are young
mothers of children aged 2 months to
2 years. Both women have low in­comes,
and both share the challenge
Food and Nutrition
of stretching their funds to cover the
expenses of a five-person household.
They say Jane Scheid has helped
them find ways to cope with the
problems of living on a tight budget.
And they've used what they've
learned from her to make some
changes.
"I used to buy expensive baby food
products for my children, but Mrs.
Scheid showed me how to buy
cheaper, healthier food for them,"
Wanda Shifflet says with pride.
"She's teaching me how to buy
more vegetables," Patricia Tapp
adds.
Jane Scheid emphasizes planning
in her food purchasing lessons.
"Think menu-planning," she advises.
"See what you have on hand so you
can utilize leftovers." A shopping list
is an essential planning tool, and is
even more useful when drawn up with
the aid of the supermarket sale pages
from the newspaper.
Checking unit pricing, buying
generic and house brands, and pur­chasing
foods which have undergone
little processing and packaging are
other money-saving tips Scheid
passes on to her clients. "Any time
they've done work for you, it costs
something," she warns.
Another way
to cut costs
In deciding where to shop as well
as what to buy, people can save by
taking the do-it-yourself approach.
Thousands of New Yorkers, for
example, have found they can
economize-and learn-by buying
directly from farmers who "set up
shop" in inner-city neighborhoods.
The basic principle is direct
marketing-from the farmer right to
the consumer. It's not a new idea, but
August 1979
Thanks to a non­profit
project called
Greenmarket, many
New Yorkers can
save by buying
directly from farmers.
one that's gaining popularity among
city folks, suburbanites, and school
food service managers.
"I'm finally discovering what real
vegetables smell like."
"It's the best thing that's happened
to our neighborhood-we all look
forward to those wonderful, delicious,
and fresh fruits and vegetables .... "
These comments are representa­tive
of the enthusiasm of shoppers at
a large farmers' market in the heart of
New York. The project is a privately
funded system of seven fruit and
vegetable markets, and an outstand­ing
example of a new breed of farm­ers'
markets.
Located so that most shoppers can
get there by foot or public transporta­tion,
the markets strive to appeal to a
wide variety of ethnic and economic
groups and to provide high-quality,
low-cost fresh farm produce. Some
markets accept food stamps.
Add to convenience the pleasure of
buying food in the open air, in the
company of congenial neighbors and
farmers, and you have a delightful
environment in which people can
learn to buy nutritious and inexpen­sive
food-simply by doing it!
Barry Benepe, founder and director
of the project, feels that the markets
play an educational role by providing
an appealing and affordable route to
good nutrition. "People are more
likely to buy a lot of fresh fruits and
vegetables if they find they taste
better than what they are accustomed
to," he says.
Because participating farmers are
restricted to selling their own produce
or produce purchased from local
farmers the day before the sale,
shoppers are guaranteed their wares
16
will be fresh. Low prices are a direct
result of the absence of the middle­men
who transport or process pro­duce
after it leaves the farmer and
before it reaches the consumer.
Food buying
tips from USDA
By learning how to become in­formed
and thoughtful consumers,
people can find their own ways to
build "nutritional cushions." Here are
some tips from USDA's Food Safety
and Quality Service, which provides
voluntary grading services to produc­ers
of meat, poultry, eggs, dairy
products, and fresh, canned, frozen
and dried fruits and vegetables.
Grades define levels of product
quality, FSQS experts explain. For
example, U.S. Grade A canned to­matoes
consist of red tomatoes which
are attractive and of uniform size.
The less expensive U.S. Grade C to­matoes
are lighter in color.
Tom Crider, FSQS expert on proc­essed
fruits and vegetables, suggests
that shoppers buy the lower grades of
canned or frozen vegetables for
stews, soups and casseroles. "Your
bonus for careful shopping will be
foods that are just as wholesome and
nutritious," he says, "but cheaper
than higher grade products."
Hailing "generic" foods as one of
the best ways to save money on
processed products, Crider claims
"they are an excellent bargain for
your spending dollar." Generics are
easily identifiable on the shelf be­cause
they carry no brand names.
They are generally of Grade B or C
quality. In a recent study, USDA
found Grade C products run 10 to 35
percent lower in price than Grade A.
Some other
ways to save
Here are some other food buying
tips from FSQS:
• Eggs are extremely versatile and
are an excellent source of protein at a
very low cost per serving.
• Nonfat dry milk is also an excel­lent
bargain. It can be bought in bulk
and stored unrefrigerated for several
months. To make the milk more
palatable, you can use a combination
of whole fluid milk and water in re­constituting
the dry milk.
• Fresh fruits and vegetables are
some of the most appealing items to
be found in the supermarket. Their
quality can be fairly accurately judged
by apperance alone. Avoid buying
fruits and vegetables in large quan­tities,
unless you can be sure of using
them before they spoil. And don't buy
bruised or damaged produce-it's no
bargain! It will decay more rapidly
and will probably have to be thrown
away.
The Food Safety and Quality Serv­ice
has a number of pamphlets that
explain grading, food quality, and
buying tips in greater detail. A series
entitled How to Buy offers practical
guidance which can help shoppers
get the most food and value for their
money.
Single copies are free, and most of
the pamphlets are available in
Spanish. How to Use USDA Grades
in Buying Food is also available in
Spanish and includes a list of the
How to Buy publications. Write to:
Food Safety and Quality Service In­formation,
Room 3059-S, U.S. De­partment
of Agriculture, Washington,
D.C. 20250. D
by Paula Klevan
USDA grades-what
do they mean? Is it
best always to ·buy
Grade A? Not
necessarily.
Food and Nutrition
When
Disaster
Strikes ...
"I hated it, you know, I was hoping
it was just a bad dream. It's some­thing
you think would never happen
to you but happens everywhere
else."
Disasters, either natural or man­made,
are usually something you
hear about on radio, or see on televi­sion,
or read about in the pages of
your local newspaper a comfortable
distance from the distressed area.
But disasters and subsequent evacu­ations
can happen anywhere. And
quite unexpectedly.
The point is: it could happen to you
at any time. Would you know what to
do? Would local officials know what
to do to minimize the impact of de­struction?
During an evacuation, two impor­tant
decisions must be made quickly.
Where will people go? And once they
get there, what will they eat? The Red
Cross and other volunteer disaster
aid groups keep supplies on hand to
handle immediate food needs. But
before long, food donated by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture must be
used to sustain the hungry.
Let's take a look at two areas
where disaster struck this spring:
flood-ravaged Jackson, Mississippi,
and the tornado-shattered Texas
towns of Vernon and Wichita Falls.
The reaction of government offi­cials
and volunteers in finding shel­ters
and food for the homeless is our
focal point, because what they do and
how quickly they do it, often deter­mines
just how ill the effects of the
disaster will be.
In late April, the Pearl River swept
over Its banks to record flood levels
In Jackson, Mississippi, and parts of
Alabama. The result: at least four
dead and thousands homeless,
much of what they owned gone.
James Salter, district manager for
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service,
retraced events as the water began to
rise:
"The flooding was just beginning to
get very serious," he said, "and many
people were being evacuated. People
were moving household goods out of
their homes, and I got a call from a
friend, wanting me to come over with
my pickup truck to help with some
movement of household goods.
"I really thought they were kidding
when I first talked to them, knowing
the area they lived is some distance
from the Pearl River. I didn't antici­pate
the flooding had gotten up that
high, that soon, but it had.
"The water was in the man's car­port
when we got to his home. We
moved a lot of household goods,
jacked up the remainder about 4 feet
high and thought we had left them in
very good shape. As it turned out the
next day, my friend had 5 feet of
water in his house. This happened to
hundreds of people in the northeast
area of Jackson."
It takes a while for the horror to
sink in, Salter said. "Most people
would be just like you and me.
There's somewhat of a shock and
disbelief, and then people as a rule
get busy and do what they can, but
they're still just kind of numb. The
real impact, I think, hits people a day
or two later. Then they realize the
tremendous loss. It's a very traumatic
experience."
Got involved
right away
Salter's office became involved al­most
at the start of trouble in
Jackson. "My first contact was with
the Red Cross," he said. "They were
on the scene, and their Red Cross
Headquarters here in Jackson had
quite a few people in already. They
were doing some feeding from mobile
units and had already set up shelters.
"We got them some USDA food
from the Jackson City School Ware­house.
The school lunch program had
a good inventory. It worked out
beautifully as far as accessibility was
concerned, and we lined up the pos­sibility
of getting additional food from
other States, if necessary, throughout
this emergency."
As the water continued to rise, vol­unteers,
friends and neighbors strug­gled
together to minimize the impact
of the flooding.
"This happened all over the city,"
Salter said. "I've never seen anything
like the cooperation and the good
neighbor helpfulness of people who
just pitched in and did what they
could for each other."
But as the debris began to settle in
Jackson and the surrounding area of
the Pearl River Valley, people began
to assess their losses. Bob Lindicans
was one.
"The night before," he recalled, "I
worked desperately trying to move
out my brother-in-law, who got about
7 feet of water in his house. I got in
late that night and collapsed, you
know, didn't have dinner. I watched
the mayor's report and our street was
18 Food and Nutrition
never mentioned. We weren't given
any warning at 10 or 11 that night.
"When the baby woke up for its 6
o'clock feeding the next morning, we
just happened to look outside, and
the water was 3 feet from coming into
our house. I called everybody I knew
and asked them to come over and
help us try to move out what we
could. We saved what furniture we
could and had to leave the rest be­hind.
It's kind of an empty feeling."
Linda Kent, another parent with
young children, said emergency
feeding and food stamp distribution
helped minimize the impact of the
flooding. "Most definitely food and
shelter are the two main basic needs
right now," she said.
Thankful
for help
Others in the Jackson area recalled
their tragedy and were grateful for
emergency food stamp distribution.
"We lost the trailer we were living
in," said a man waiting in line to be
certified for food stamps. "Getting
food stamps is gonna come in handy.
It's gonna help out."
Another man waiting in line said for
his family, as for many others, loss of
a home was only part of the tragedy.
A ruined business would mean loss of
income for some time. "The business
I was employed with went under
water," he explained. "It will take
about a month to get back in opera­tion."
Asked how he felt about the assist­ance
provided during emergency, he
said he felt it was an example for
other countries: "I think it's just part
of our system, the American system. I
think it's good that we can do this sort
of thing."
The Pearl River floods affected
hundreds of thousands of people in
parts of Mississippi and Alabama. In
all, about 15,500 pounds of USDA­donated
foods were used to help feed
flood victims. More than 900,000
people in Mississippi and 10,000
people in Alabama were certified for
emergency food stamps.
August 1979
April 10, 1979, Is a date better
known as terrible Tuesday-the day
twisters ripped through Vernon and
Wichita Falls, Texas, two towns
within the area called Tornado
Alley. Over a hundred people were
killed, a thousand Injured, and
thousands left homeless.
An observer in Witchita Falls was
later to say, "These houses aren't
destroyed, they're gone." Billy Stan­ford's
house was gone.
"We were working in a church
building-my wife and my children
and !-getting stuff cleaned up for an
auction sale," Stanford said. "I heard
on the radio that a tornado was
touching down, and I went ahead and
prepared to leave, if necessary. I got
my family in the car, and by that time,
the tornado was moving with such
speed and velocity that it almost
caught us.
"We got on an expressway that
runs east and west, and since the
tornado was coming out of the west,
naturally we went east. Just before I
reached a point where I could turn
south and get out of the path of it, it
pulled my car's speed down by 30
miles an hour, and just shook that car
real violently.
"When we returned home less than
15 minutes after we left, our home,
three rental units, and the church
building were completely demolished.
Everything we had in the house and
in the building was lost. They were all
just totaled out.
"You know, we were just very
thankful to the Lord that we didn't
have any physical injury, and the
houses and possessions can be re­placed
over a period of time. But we
did lose some of our friends of years
past, and some of our neighbors were
killed. But our family escaped any in­jury
in the storm."
Family got
food help
Stanford had praise for emergency
feeding operations. His family <;~te at
shelters run by the Red Cross, Sal­vation
Army, and church groups,
using food supplied by the Depart­ment
of Agriculture. They also
applied for and got emergency food
stamps, as did nearly 15,300 other
people affected by the disaster.
"We were fed very well," Stanford
said, "and I want to commend the
Department of Agriculture very highly.
They're one of the departments with
the least red tape. The food stamp
[agency] had a number of people
here. They serviced the people
quickly, and I knew there were a lot of
people applying. They waited on us
very quickly and very courteously­and
very cheerfully. The smiles really
helped."
In any disaster, said Ronnie
Rhodes of the Food and Nutrition
Service's Southeast region, volun­teers
play a crucial role.
"Volunteers are vital to serving the
disaster victims. Agencies such as
the Red Cross and Salvation Army
depend heavily on volunteers not
only to prepare food and get it to the
people, but also to let them know that
help is available."
In Vernon and Witchita Falls, vol­unteers
helped serve the more than
270,000 meals provided to tornado
victims. Relief agencies used more
than 30,344 pounds of USDA-foods
for these meals.
After any disaster there is the re­building.
The fortitude that makes
new beginnings possible is exempli­fied
by Billy Stanford.
"There's a song that means a lot to
me," he said. "It's a religious song
called, 'I shall rise again,' and that's
the way I feel about Wichita Falls and
its citizens, we're gonna rise again,
we're not defeated in any measure."
For more information on disaster
food assistance and how you might
help, contact the nearest regional of­fice
of the Food and Nutrition Service,
or write to:
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington, D.C. 20250
by Jim Henry
19
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
01V1S10n of Public Documents. Washmgton. DC 20402
Off1c1al Busmess
Penalty for Private Use. $300
Published six times a year by the
Food and Nutrition Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Wash­ington,
D.C. 20250.
Bob Bergland
Secretary of Agriculture
Carol Tucker Foreman
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Bob Greenstein
Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
Jan Kern, Editor
Johna L. Pierce, Assistant Editor
Jan Proctor, Art Director
Yearly subscription : $5.00 domestic,
$6.25 foreign . Single copies: 85 cents
domestic, $1.10 foreign . Subscription
orders should be sent to the Super­intendent
of Documents, Govern­ment
Printing Office, Washington ,
D.C. 20402.
The Secretary of Agriculture has
determined that the publication of
this periodical is necessary in the
transaction of the public business
required by law of this Department.
The use of funds for printing this
publication has been approved by
the Director of the Office of Man­agement
and Budget through Sep­tember
1979.
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Depart­ment
of Agriculture, Washington ,
D.C. 20250.
All programs of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture are available to
everyone without regard to race,
creed, color, sex or national origin.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
POSTAGE
& FEES PAID
U.S. DEPT.
OF
AGRICULTURE
AGR101
THIRD CLASS BLK. RT.
PERMIT NUMBER .005-5