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130,000 hungry residents don't qualify for food assistance

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By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer 9:38 PM Monday, September 5, 2011

The number of Miami Valley residents relying on food stamps to put food on the table has soared since the start of the Great Recession, but more than 130,000 area residents do not qualify for food assistance even though they are in danger of going hungry, according to a new report.

Households with incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty threshold are often eligible for government food assistance, but about 45 percent of Americans struggling with hunger have income levels that disqualify them for such aid.

“They are not able to access the programs that our government puts in place to help people, but they are still having a hard time and do not know where their next meal will come from,” said Emily Engelhard, director of social policy research with the Chicago-based Feeding America.

The findings of the report highlight the importance of food banks, food pantries and other community groups that provide groceries to anyone in need and not just those who meet certain measurements of poverty, Engelhard said.

Desperate times

But advocates for the poor said budget cuts threaten funding for food assistance programs, which could leave many needy families in desperate situations.

About 225,380 people in Montgomery, Miami, Greene, Butler and Warren counties were identified as food insecure in 2009, which is the inability for people to obtain enough food based on their resources to have a healthy life, according to the report from Feeding America, an umbrella organization for more than 200 food banks across the country.

Of the food-insecure residents in the region, more than 133,885 people, or about 60 percent, did not qualify for federal food assistance because their income was higher than the federal poverty guidelines, according to the report.

Participation in the food stamp program, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, requires that a household not earn more than 130 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which is $14,157 annually for an individual and $29,055 for a family of four.

The free and reduced lunch program through the public schools and other food assistance programs have income guidelines between 130 and 185 percent of the federal poverty line, which similarly bars more than 100,000 food-insecure Miami Valley residents from reaping their benefits.

Benjamin Johnson, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which administers the food stamp program, said while SNAP prevents many low-income families from going hungry, he said it unfortunately is unable to serve everyone who is struggling.

“Twenty-nine thousand dollars for a family of four is not a lot of money,” he said. “I have no doubt that there are people who do not qualify for the SNAP program but who are struggling to have an adequate amount of food on the table every night.”

Doing more  with less

Job and Family Services is aware of this hunger gap and works closely with food banks and other groups to connect needy families with community-based services that can help them get the food they need, he said.

But food banks and pantries across the state are stretched thin because more people are using their services and yet funding and donations to these organizations are declining, officials said.

Federal lawmakers have proposed some deep cuts to programs aimed at reducing hunger such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides about 25 percent of all food distributed through Feeding America. A 20 percent cut to the program would result in Ohio losing about 11.4 million pounds of food for food banks and pantries, according to the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.

“The loss of this food will result in bare shelves, lightened food bags, more agencies closing their doors and increased rates of hunger and food insecurity,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the association’s executive director.

The shrinking resources of and rising reliance on food banks and pantries spells trouble, but these groups are doing their best to rise to the challenge of feeding needy families, said Peggy Seboldt, director of social services with Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley.

“All of us have to do more with less,” she said. “There are many people who are kind, generous and willing to support those who are struggling, but the availability of resources continues to be a challenge.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-0749 or cfrolik@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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