SNAP Benefits Families and the Local Economy
Posted by Katherine Van Steenburgh on Monday, June 20, 2011
Editor’s Note: All summer, Share Our Strength staff will be visiting summer meals sites across the country to show our work in action. This post is part of that series. To learn more about Summer Meals, visit strength.org/summer.
The Arkansas No Kid Hungry Campaign set two priorities for the first year of the partnership: increase participation in summer meals and get more eligible Arkansas residents enrolled in SNAP. SNAP, in case you’re not familiar, is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
When I was in Arkansas last week, I got to see SNAP outreach in action in a way that brought this program to life for me.
In Little Rock, I met Florice, a mother of two who moved to Arkansas over 20 years ago. When she arrived, Florice didn’t have a job and struggled to have enough food to feed her girls. Florice’s family was cared for by the food banks and local community organizations who provided meals for her family. Thankfully, that hard season in Florice’s life passed.
Now that Florice and her kids are doing well, she runs two day care centers in the Little Rock area. Florice told us that she “wants to help the families of Little Rock like people helped her when she first arrived in Arkansas.”
In addition to running the day care centers, Florice delivers food boxes from the food bank and also has begun enrolling families in SNAP so that they can buy food for their families. Thanks to the training, materials, and guidance provided by the No Kid Hungry Campaign, Florice is now educating parents in her community and helping them to enroll in SNAP.
A major barrier to getting more eligible families enrolled in SNAP is the stigma. Many families are embarrassed that they need SNAP to help feed their families and they are hesitant to enroll. Others may have jobs and struggle with providing food for their children, being unaware that SNAP can help put food on the table.
However, the No Kid Hungry team is working to break down those barriers, clarifying questions about eligibility and pointing out to leaders and the community that enrolling in SNAP benefits the local economy, because more money is being spent in the community.
Florice is helping her neighbors avoid emergency feeding situations – like standing in line at food banks – by educating and enrolling them in SNAP. Her work is not only benefiting those families in need, but also the entire Little Rock community.
RELATED LINKS:
— Learn more about Share Our Strength’s Summer Meals work
— Help Support Summer Meals Work
June 20, 2011 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: Arkansas, No Kid Hungry, SNAP, state partnerships, summer meals
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