Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks NEWS

 

Monday March 20, 2006

SAVINGS FOR OHIO: New card for food stamps is issued

Catherine Candisky, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Lovelia Eskew watched her mail closely after getting a letter from the state informing her that she would soon receive a new debit like card for food stamps. 

"It came the other day," the Columbus woman said, patting her pocket. "I just need to call to activate it." 

One week from today, Ohio will change the way it distributes food stamps for only the second time in 42 years. 

In the late 1990s, the state got rid of paper coupons to prevent fraud. This time the state expects to save $23 million a year in administrative costs by replacing its high-priced "smart card" with the more widely used magnetic-stripe card like those used at groceries, gas stations and ATMs. 

Eskew, 68, is one of the more than 1 million low-income Ohioans who use food stamps to buy groceries. Like most, she has yet to call a toll-free number to activate her card and select a pin number. 

She has a week.

At 11:59 p.m. Sunday, the green Ohio Direction cards that recipients currently use will no longer be accepted by grocers and other retailers. 

Two minutes later, at 12:01 a.m. next Monday, recipients can start using the new blue and silver cards.

April benefits will be immediately available and any remaining balance on old cards will be transferred to the new ones by March 29. 

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced in October 2003 that it was abandoning its high-tech "smart card" after The Dispatch detailed how it was the most expensive system in the nation. 

Unlike 48 other states, Ohio and Wyoming use the smart card with an embedded computer chip that holds account information. Other states use magnetic-stripe cards, which rely on phone lines to access account information.

While Ohio’s smart card costs $4.73 per caseload per month to operate, the new cards will cost 89 cents. 

John Scaggs, who oversees food stamps for the state, anticipates a smooth transition.

"The system we are going to, an online swipe system, is 40-year-old technology. It’s reliable and stable," he said.

The bigger challenge is spreading the word about the new cards and making sure recipients activate them.

Earlier this month, the state sent notices to more than 500,000 households receiving food stamps or that had gotten benefits during the past year, informing them that new cards would be coming in the mail. 

As of Thursday, all 515,817 cards had been sent out, and 87,735 of them, or 17 percent, have been activated.

Department officials say they expect that number to increase dramatically in the next week or so when the cards become functional. Thousands of cards, they say, likely will never be activated. They were sent to former recipients who might have a balance of just a few dollars. 

"Even though they have all been mailed, we know that a lot of cards haven’t reached the recipient yet," said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the state agency.

"We needed to change the system and we’re doing our best to get the word out. But (activating the card) is that one component that they are responsible for." 

Scaggs said most of the inquiries received so far have come from recipients asking why they haven’t gotten their card. 

"People should have them by (Thursday)," he said. "If not, they can call the customer service number of contact their caseworker."

The customer service number is 1-866-386-3071.

Scaggs said that cards returned as undeliverable are being referred to county agencies for investigation regarding the recipients’ whereabouts. 

"When we converted from paper coupons to cards, a significant portion of the population wasn’t familiar with debit like cards," Scaggs said. "Now a high percentage of this population is familiar with the current card and debit or credit cards. Cashiers are also familiar with the technology and can be of more assistance." 

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, said the new cards might encourage more eligible Ohioans to sign up for benefits because they are swiped by the same readers other shoppers use. The smart card had a special reader that often was located at only a single cash register. 

"I think this will do a lot to reduce the stigma," she said. "They look just like credit cards."

ccandisky@dispatch.com, Copyright © 2006, The Columbus Dispatch

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Less to eat

By Catherine Candisky THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Each month, 326 boxes are neatly stacked to the ceiling in the back room of the Salvation Army’s Linden Service

TOM DODGE | DISPATCH

Jan Lucas, a caseworker for the Salvation Army chapel on the North Side, gives Jennie Park, left, a hug after helping to load a box of food into Park’s car.

TOM DODGE | DISPATCH

People helped by a food-assistance program learned recently that a federal budget cut could wipe out the aid. Jennie Park, left, and Ruby Buxton, both of Columbus, got the word as they picked up food last week at the Salvation Army’s Linden Service Center.

 Center. They are filled with fruit juice, cheese, cereal and canned meats for low income senior citizens. On a rainy afternoon last week, a steady stream of elderly people arrived by car and taxi for their 25-pound box of food. Many said higher prescription drug and utility bills have squeezed their grocery budgets. About 12,000 Ohio senior citizens receive boxes of food each month, 9 percent fewer than last year because of federal budget cuts. News that President Bush wants to eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program in his new budget proposal angered many. 

"They want to replace it with food stamps," social worker Jan Lucas told one man. 

"Do they want us to storm the castle?" he shot back.

Lucas laughed, handing the man an application for food stamps and heating assistance. Two women waiting their turn shook their heads. 

"If they do that, they are going to hurt a whole lot of people," said Jane Courts, who recently adopted her 7-year-old great-grandson. 

Most of their food comes from two sources: the $144 in food stamps Courts gets at the beginning of each month and the food box she gets in the middle of the month.

Courts, 73, of Columbus, uses the canned beef to make barbecue and adds broth to the canned chicken to make chicken and dumplings.

"I like the juices, and the (dry) milk comes in handy at the end of the month," she said. "If I’m out, he can mix it with water and sugar for his cereal." 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture runs the program, which cost $111 million this year. Launched in 1968, it operates in 32 states, in the District of Columbia and on three Indian reservations. Programs vary but mostly serve the elderly. 

Agriculture Department spokeswoman Jean Daniel said an expected budget deficit and the fact that the program is not nationwide prompted the proposal to eliminate it. 

"Our concern is making sure everyone has access," she said. "Eligibility requirements are very similar to food stamps, and those benefits are available nationwide."

Under Bush’s plan, the program would end Dec. 31. Recipients would be eligible for $20 a month in transitional benefits for up to six months while they apply for food stamps or other assistance. 

Federal regulators estimate that each box contains $50 worth of groceries.

Lucas and others said senior citizens typically don’t receive enough in food stamps to replace what they get in the commodities program.

A quarter of Ohio’s elderly in the program also receive food stamps. On average, they get a monthly benefit of $40, said Beth Kowalczyk, who oversees the program for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. 

"They will really have to stretch their food stamps," she said. "It’s a population that doesn’t have much else in

the way of food or assistance except for Social Security." 

The state has no money with which to replace the program, Kowalczyk said.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, said the

program’s demise comes at an especially bad time.

"With home energy costs on the rise and high prescription drug prices, now is not the time to take food off the plates of our state’s seniors," she said. 

Eliminating the program, she said, also will further strain the association’s statewide network of food pantries and soup kitchens. 

More than 1 million Ohioans receive food stamps, and an equal number sought assistance from a pantry or soup kitchen last year, according to a recent survey commissioned by Second Harvest.

Daniel said federal regulators estimate that 56 percent of those eligible for food stamps nationwide receive them.

Senior citizens participate at a much lower rate, she said. 

For those who get them, the average monthly benefit is $65.

Mamie Ellison, 72, of Columbus, gets $63 a month in food stamps.

She uses the commodities "when the food runs low and the food stamps are out and the children can’t get to

me." 

Sarah Casler, another Columbus recipient, said, "If they are going to cut this program, I want to know where the money is going. It’s convenient, and it’s needed and it’s appreciated."

ccandisky@dispatch.com; Copyright © 2006, The Columbus Dispatch

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