FOOD STAMP CHALLENGE, cont'd.

Representative Kathy Webb of Little Rock, the last to speak, at a conference covered by the three Little Rock television stations, the statewide newspaper and a radio station, announced the formation of a bipartisan caucus in the legislature that will study the issue and “prepare for initiatives to combat hunger in Arkansas. So, when the next session starts (in 2009), we will be prepared to end hunger in Arkansas.”

Hope Coulter of the Coalition, a project of the Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association, worked with Ellen Ingram of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and Webb to organize the event to help them better understand those who are hungry and to do more to reduce it.

Ingram said that about 20 percent of the legislators participated, which she said meant “this might be the beginning of the end of hunger.”

Coulter, who herself took the challenge and said “it awakened my consciousness,” said the food stamp program – there are no food stamps anymore; participants are issued a “benefits card” – is “vitally important” because it brings $420 million in federal money into the state to serve more than 380,000 people. “We know after our experience” that the average monthly benefit of $89.72 a person, or less than $3 a day, isn’t enough, she said. “It’s pretty tough to get by” on that; “these are working households, many of them, 80 percent are households with children; many others are elderly and disabled.”

She urged U. S. senators and representatives deliberating on reauthorization of funding for the program to “give it special attention.”

Coulter works with a network of food banks and pantries, including those operated by the community action agencies, which also distribute federal surplus commodities to help reduce poverty, which affects more than 17 percent of the population, or more than 450,000 people.

Food stamps are meant to be temporary, and to supplement a person’s or family’s income, but Coulter said that because of the rising cost in basic necessities many have little income for food; most may have no more than $2,000 in resources to get the stamps, according to a federal government fact sheet.

Representative Greg Reep of Warren, the former mayor there, said in an interview after the conference that he took the challenge “to experience what a lot of people have to deal with every day, to get a personal understanding of what it takes to eat on that small amount of money.”

The representatives and senators, all of whom are Democrats and two of whom brought children, included Representatives Benny Petrus of Stuttgart, the speaker, who wasn’t there, and Steven Harrelson of Texarkana, majority leader. Representative Pam Adcock of Little Rock said she’d begin the challenge during the weekend, and wouldn’t cook, in sympathy with the homeless, who “don’t have stoves or microwaves.”

They said they ate cereal, sandwiches, chicken pot pie, pork chops, spaghetti, beans and peas, greens, eggs, macaroni and cheese, soup, cornbread without milk, peanut butter, and bought “off-brands.”
Representative Sandra Prater of Jacksonville said, “I learned to love chicken noodle soup, not my favorite, but I did eat it every day.”

Representative Rick Green of Van Buren, who when shopping saw people putting items back on the shelves and shaking their heads after realizing they couldn’t afford them, ate watermelon every night to fill himself up.

Representative Buddy Lovell of Marked Tree bought pork and beans for 33 cents a can, cooked dry white beans for “16, 17 cents a serving,” ate “the generic skillet dinner” that he “spiced up” with tomatoes and corn, and drank tap water instead of Coke and tea. "I ended up spending $8.20 in three days, so thank you. . . It was a very rewarding experience for me.”

Representative Stephanie Flowers of Pine Bluff said she and her son, Zeri, ate greens, “hot-water cornbread” and “leftover spaghetti,” and that Zeri ate a lot of banana bread. “It was really hard,” he said, and admitted that he “sneaked some Pringles.”

Victoria Maloch, daughter of Representative Bruce Maloch of Magnolia, said, “It’s hard; you can’t buy name-brand things. I appreciate being able to participate, and I’ll always remember” it.

Senator Marion Salmon of North Little Rock said her grandsons helped her buy groceries, but that she wouldn’t let them buy their favorite macaroni and cheese – they “found one for 52 cents.” She splurged only on coffee, finding a can, probably not a pound, she said, for $2.27. “I learned that if you’re on food stamps, you cannot eat fresh vegetables.”

Some said they didn’t get the nutrition they thought they needed; one woman became ill, but chose food over medicine, “the choice people who are hungry make every day of their lives.” Another said that if she’d continued her diet much longer “my health would be an issue.”

Flowers declared that it was “unconscionable” that “people have to strive to find food.” Hunger, she added, is related to the lack of education, illiteracy, “unemployability,” crime, and other social problems that she said society must solve or it “will end up paying for them on the other end.”

Representative Janet Johnson of Bryant, a high school teacher, was reminded of the many students she said get their only “real good meal” of the day at school. “Once we accept there is an issue of hunger in this state, then we’re obligated to do something about it.”

Representative Johnnie Roebuck of Arkadelphia said she and the others “don’t pretend to know how it feels to be on food stamps” after three days, but she said the experience “brought home to me” the need to “help our school children” and the importance of the cafeterias and summer and after-school programs. “We’ve all learned our school children are really suffering, and we need to do something to help them.”

Majority Leader Harrelson said it had “a profound impact on me; I had no idea of the difficulty I would face, just over three days. . . This project is not over, you’re seeing the beginning of a project. . . I think we’re going to hear a lot more about some of the things to come out of this project from the legislature.”

David Johnson, who ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, said it made him appreciate the legislature’s responsibility “to try to improve the lives” of those in need. He stressed that “giving people the tools for success,” including education and job training, “is far more effective than pure welfare,” but conceded that, “when necessary,” they should be given “the most basic essential of life, food,” and acknowledged that food stamps can help people “improve their own situation.”

Asked what they might do legislatively to reduce hunger, Reep, in the interview, said that because “much on the federal level needs attention” that “there’s a limited amount we can probably do in the state.” But he added that “we would be remiss, as state representatives, if we didn’t look at every angle that we could and see what we can do for the people of Arkansas.”