THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502040319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Next month will see the final quarterly giveaway of surplus food from the government to about 50,000 needy Hampton Roads residents, as well as millions of others nationwide.
State and local officials who distribute the surplus from the U.S. Department of Agriculture worry that those who count on the free food can't stretch their budgets any tighter.
Nationwide, about 2.5 million households will be affected by the cutback, said Agriculture Department spokesman Phil Stanholzer.
Last year, he said, Congress slashed the $120 million Emergency Food Assistance Program by nearly half, keeping $40 million for administration but reducing from $80 million to $25 million the money for buying food.
The $65 million 1995 budget is part of the $40.2 billion that Congress appropriated for federal food support programs this year, Stanholzer said.
While some surplus food will still be available through food pantries run by local non-profit groups, needy residents no longer can count on the mass distributions that have been held four times each year in each city for the past 12 years.
``It was a boon for some, but, at the same time, most should be able to qualify for mainline'' food subsidy programs such as food stamps, he explained.
But Tom Nations, head of Virginia's food distribution, disagreed.
Food stamps have stricter requirements, and qualifying won't be easy for many of those who received food through the mass distributions. The impact will definitely be felt, he said.
``It's like the safety net's being removed,'' said Nations.
But there is ``no cause for alarm yet,'' he added. ``We're trying to keep a system in place. I hope the needy will still get what they need.''
Nations said that after a March mass distribution, the remaining supplies will be sent to the state's six Second Harvest food banks. Local food pantries will be able to use it to give families emergency help.
Most supervisors of Hampton Roads food distribution are concerned about how the federal cuts will affect the poor locally.
``We're going to have some hungry people out there,'' said Brenda Whitaker, Virginia Beach's social services coordinator for the food giveaway program. During the most recent giveaway last month, 3,773 people received free butter, rice, cornmeal, peanut butter, green beans and applesauce on the first day of the two-day handout.
One-person households, many of them elderly, will ``probably miss it more than anyone else,'' said Roberta Bunch, senior eligibility supervisor for Suffolk. She estimated that half to three-fourths of the 2,429 people who participated in the September food handout represented one-person households.
``It will be a problem, no doubt about it,'' said Craig Frey, financial services supervisor for special projects in Newport News, where 8,000 people picked up free food in the most recent distribution. ``It's a boost in the arm, helps stretch money out for those on food stamps and the elderly. It's not tremendous, but anything to stretch is a help.''
Frey said federal money earmarked for the surplus food giveaway program in Virginia had been cut from $3 million to $1 million.
``I'm sure it will be missed,'' said Mary Jane Brockwell, who heads Chesapeake's food distribution programs. At Chesapeake's December handout, 4,393 individuals received free food.
While participation in the federal surplus program has steadily declined in recent years, there has been a parallel increase in people using food stamp assistance, said Brockwell. She attributed that to the declining availability of surplus food, especially cheese, which was dropped in 1991.
The federal program began in 1982 as part of what became known as the ``great Reagan cheese giveaway,'' said Stanholzer.
At its peak, the program gave away up to 1 billion pounds of food each year to the nation's poor, he said.
Then, in 1988, Congress passed the Hunger Prevention Act, which provided money for food subsidies through price support programs for farmers. The federal government bought up farmers' surpluses to stabilize prices, in the same stroke acquiring food to distribute through the food giveaway program.
But the Clinton administration proposed a significant cut in funds last year, Stanholzer said. Congress complied, keeping the administrative ``pipeline open'' so that if the government buys surplus food - on the market instead of from farmers directly - the network would still be in place to reach the poor. by CNB