Farm bill 2007: Food Stamp cuts at stake

I was at the grocery store when I noticed that quarts of milk were on sale. They were cheap because they were set to expire soon.

I bought a couple for a buck.

Did you know that that's more than the average food stamp benefit, per person, per meal, in Kansas – which happens to be 95 cents?

Did you know that about 12 percent of Kansas households are "food insecure," meaning that at some point in any given year, they're not sure whether they'll have enough food for everyone?

I think about these numbers because right now, a farm bill's moving through Congress that would cut food stamps by $540 million over five years.

I smell trouble.

The smell only gets worse when I consider the timing of these cuts relative to demand for the stamps. 

In the last five years, the number of food stamp recipients in Kansas rose by more than 50,000.

Even that doesn't tell the whole story.  Many more Kansans are eligible to receive food stamps but for some reason don't sign up for them.

The number of Kansans getting food stamps is rising, but these folks aren't living large.

A family of three – a single mom and a couple of kids, say – can get food stamps only if its gross income is less than about $22,000.

With a few exceptions, a family can't have more than $2,000 in additional assets.  That figure's been the same for more than 20 years.

If you haven't been paying attention to the evolution of the food stamp program, it may surprise you that many more working families are getting food stamps today than ever before.

Still not moved?  There's more.

Forty-eight percent of the Kansans who benefit from food stamps are children.  Eighteen percent of the Kansans who benefit are preschool children. 

In other words, about 33,000 Kansas preschoolers live with a grownup or grownups who sometimes wonder where the next meal's coming from.

According to Mary Walsh and Jennifer Murphy in a book titled Children, Health and Learning, even moderate nutritional shortfalls or hunger can reduce a child's mental development.

Other research shows that children in food-insecure families are more likely to be aggressive, anxious or have other emotional problems.

We adults can keep silent . . . or we can protest cuts to the food stamp program.  The 33,000 Kansas preschoolers who live with food insecurity can't.  They had no choice about the poverty they were born into.

The Kansas congressional delegation will have a say in what happens to food stamps, so let them know how you feel.  Kansas Reps. Nancy Boyda and Jerry Moran are on the House agriculture committee and Sen. Pat Roberts is on the Senate ag committee.

These two committees help decide what the federal food stamp program will look like.

The cost of speaking up is small.  A few minutes.  A phone call.  An e-mail.  Or – the old-fashioned way – an envelope and a first class stamp

The stamp's even cheaper than a quart of milk that's about to go sour.

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Roger Martin, a long-time commentator on Kansas Public Radio, is communications director for Kansas Action for Children in Topeka.