Farm bill passes, but 'Hunger Games' still very real here

Editorial by Asheville Citizen Times, February 7, 2014.

North Carolinians who need food stamps are safe, for now.

The Senate on Wednesday passed and sent to President Obama a five-year, $1 trillion farm bill that essentially keeps the food stamp program intact. The bill also includes Payment in Lieu of Taxes money that is so important to several rural Western North Carolina counties, Swain in particular.

Passage is yet another sign that Congress is getting past gridlock. The votes were 251-166 in the House and 68-32 in the Senate. Among those who represent WNC, only Republican Sen. Richard Burr voted no.

The bill was supported by Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and by the two Republicans who represent the mountains in the House, Patrick McHenry of Cherryville and Mark Meadows of Glenville.

Food stamps will be cut by some $8.6 billion over 10 years. The savings come from eliminating a tactic by which some states used the winter-heating program to increase food-stamp eligibility. North Carolina is not one of those states.

“I’m relieved that the farm bill is finally getting resolved, and it’s not going to include any deeper cuts in North Carolina than is already happening,” said Cindy Threlkeld, executive director of MANNA FoodBank.

But, “That doesn’t mean we don’t need to worry about hunger,” she added. Benefits dropped Nov. 1 when a temporary increase put in place during the Great Recession expired. On top of that, the delay in processing food-stamp applications in North Carolina has created added stress.

“I think you could talk to any food pantry person in the 16 counties in the western part of the state, and you’re going to get the same answer,” said Susan Williams, coordinator of the Grace Episcopal Church Food Pantry in Waynesville.

“The need is there. The need is not going away. We have many of our clients who are working, they’re taking care of kids. We have seniors who have taken in their grandchildren.”

In Buncombe County alone, more than 38,000 people received an average of $331 per household in food assistance in December. That was down about $11 for a single person and $36 for a family of four from October. And then there are those who haven’t been able to qualify for assistance but nevertheless need help.

Meanwhile in Raleigh, the political appointees Gov. McCrory put in charge of our state’s Health and Human Services department have bungled the food stamp program so badly that the federal government has threatened to pull funding. As of a month ago, more than 6,000 families had been waiting more than 90 days to get applications processed.

The state has until March to come up with a fix. The U.S. Department of Agriculture “expects North Carolina to take whatever steps are necessary to fix these system issues as quickly as possible and deliver benefits to eligible clients in a timely fashion,” a department spokeswoman said.

The appointees have tried to shift the blame to Washington, citing changes required by the Affordable Care Act. That won’t fly. The ACA affects all 50 states and other states are not having such problems.

Locally, the situation would be far worse without the efforts of the many people working in food banks. They are on the front lines, and they know the hunger problem is getting worse.

“Our demand has gone up and up,” said Charles Easton, volunteer and president of the board of Community Table in Sylva “Today I think we had four new families come in that had never been here before.”

The farm bill approval does make the situation any better. But at least it isn’t any worse.