The amount of money spent on food stamps and the number of people using them are dropping across Missouri and the nation, but some food pantries are reporting more patrons than ever.
The number of households receiving Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits grew every year from 2009 to 2012, but dropped by more than 1,600 households in 2013, according to the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) Family Support Division Annual Data Report. The price associated with the program dropped more than $17.4 million between 2012 and 2013.
The report also estimated the 378 emergency food assistance programs, such as food banks and soup kitchens, distributed food to more than 195,000 people in the state during 2013. The same year, the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri reported giving out more than 1.4 million pounds of food - more than 339,000 pounds than the previous year. The amount of food distributed in 2014 dropped by more than 2 million pounds, but it has increased within Cole County every year since 2012, with 2014 showing an increase of more than 30,000 pounds, according to the Food Bank's annual report.
The Food Bank serves 32 Missouri counties, helping supply more than 132 food pantries and support agencies, said Mike DeSantis, communications coordinator. About 90 percent of the food from food banks is donated privately, with the remaining 10 percent coming from government programs like the Community Supplemental Food Program, he explained.
"We are not trying to feed everyone forever," he said. "We have a finite amount of food, and we are feeding a little more than 114,000 people a month. We are trying to provide temporary and supplemental assistance for people."
One Food Bank agency that does not represent the statewide trend is the Samaritan Center of Jefferson City. The center served more households in 2012 than any other year between 2010 and 2014, according to Ben DeFeo, Samaritan Center operation manager. These numbers better mimic the number of people on SNAP benefits - the Samaritan Center's number of households served dropped more than 2,000 between 2012 and 2013, then by more than 200 in 2014.
DeFeo was surprised by the Samaritan Center's numbers, saying it felt as if the number of people the center serves has steadily increased.
"We try to cover almost every need that people have. We do everything except for hot meals and shelter," DeFeo said. "We give out more food when we have a higher census of people coming in; and we probably give out less food per person than we have in the past, but there is more food going out the door because we have more people."
The center gives out free food, clothes, legal help, utilities assistance, medical assistance and holiday-related items such as Christmas presents and Easter baskets, he said.
However, the question remains of why more people across the state are using food pantries and fewer are using food stamps.
Glen Koenen, chair of the Hunger Task Force for Empower Missouri, has three guesses.
First, food pantries offer a quick response to people in need, which is helpful to people whose incomes heavily fluctuate in and out of the qualifications for SNAP benefits, Koenen said.
His second reason is based on the general treatment of the poor in the Unites States.
"Food pantries are much more confidential and humane than the state benefit system for food stamps," Koenen said. "In other words, food pantries are smaller and they treat people as individuals, and it is generally more private and low-key than signing up for a government program. In this country there is more shame in being poor than there is in being a criminal or a drug addict, and there shouldn't be. ... It is more socially acceptable to go to drug rehab than it is to apply for food stamps."
He added the majority of households receiving food stamps, minus senior citizens, contain at least one employed adult. And, he said, high-income jobs are being replaced by low-income work, so although unemployment is shrinking, people cannot afford to feed their families. For example, factory jobs are disappearing because factories are being shut down, but retail and food service jobs are becoming more abundant.
His final reason was ease of access, claiming it is easier to get food from a food pantry than it is to apply for food stamps. This decreased access to food stamps could be from early-closing office hours, limited DSS offices in rural counties and a recent system overhaul undergone by the DSS Family Support Division.
"For a lot of working people, it's hard to access the food stamp system because most offices close at 4:45 p.m., so you have to skip work sometimes to keep your case current or apply," Koenen said. "They are working on changing that, but traditionally that has been a big problem for working people.
"In most rural counties there is only one office and it can be 30 miles away. That is a 60-mile round trip, and that can become a big issue."
Koenen said the reorganization of the DSS Family Support Division is making things worse. Even though modernizing computer systems is good, changing the model for its services and cutting staff have complicated things.
Previously a client would go to the county DSS office and work with a professional to process the application, but the new model has people who need help filling out most of the paperwork and calling centers around the state for help rather than visiting an office in their county, he said.
"Go the DSS website, and you can type in the search bar and see that the food stamp applications are complicated and the notes and warnings about food stamp fraud take up more paper than the application itself," he said.
The requirements for SNAP benefits, or food stamps, have been the same for several years, and the only thing that has changed is the application process, Koenen said. He added if it was not for people donating food and time to food pantries across the state, the problem of hunger would be much worse than it is now.
"Ironically, because Missouri is so generous, I don't think that people realize how pervasive hunger is because we do such a good job helping families passionately and locally," Koenen said.