State officials and several Cabinet secretaries today are rolling out the Wolf administration’s plan to fight hunger in Pennsylvania at a mid-state food bank.
Among the plan’s goals are for the state to increase participation in the food stamp program, formally know as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, from 90 percent of eligible individuals to 98 percent or higher by the year 2020; to increase the number of children benefiting from free and reduced price school meals during the school year and associated programs during the summer; to make programs to double the value to food stamps available at more farmers’ markets; and to increase participation in the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program from 245,000 to 260,000 people within four years.
More than 1.7 million Pennsylvanians experience “food insecurity,” according to data from Feeding America.
Hunger and public benefits advocates said they were pleased with a number of the specific goals outlined in the plan that could ease the bureaucratic burdens for individuals seeking food or other assistance.
Among them are Department of Human Services initiatives that would publish all forms in the top five languages in Pennsylvania, and allowing for a phone system to be used for semi-annual benefits eligibility reviews, said Louise Hayes, supervising attorney at Community legal Services of Philadelphia, which often assists clients seeking to get or keep public benefits.
Erika Fricke, health policy director of Pittsburgh-based Allies for Children said she was pleased to see the plan’s emphasis on increasing the number of eligible children eating school breakfasts.
“We are working to expand access to school breakfast, ultimately increasing the number of students, specifically vulnerable students, eating breakfast at school,” she said.
Dawn Plummer, director of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, said the last such hunger-fighting “blueprint,” as state officials call it, was written nearly a decade ago.
However, some advocates questioned if the plan would get off the drawing board.
“The blueprint contains important goals that if achieved would go far to address hunger in [Pennsylvania],” said Just Harvest executive director Ken Regal. “But given the state’s current fiscal situation, we are concerned that without sufficient funding, the blueprint will remain just a blueprint. If we’re going to prioritize helping the one in eight Pennsylvanians who are food insecure, then state legislators will need to set budget priorities that literally put money where hungry people’s mouths are, without starving some other essential human services.”
For instance, Mr. Regal noted the goal of expanding food stamp enrollment to 98 percent of eligible Pennsylvanians “relies on ‘identify[ing] best practices’ and ‘increasing partnerships’ instead of real investments in capacity.”
The plan is available online at http://www.dhs.pa.gov/ending-hunger/about/blueprint/index.htm
Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909 or on Twitter @KateGiammarise.
First Published: September 21, 2016, 3:29 p.m.
Updated: September 22, 2016, 4:09 a.m.
