More Western NC families depend on food stamps

[Thom Little]

The number of people across North Carolina receiving food stamps has risen to record levels, and social services officials say they believe it will continue to rise.

The number of working families receiving food stamps in Buncombe County has risen by nearly 40 percent since 2002.

Even with the numbers so high — 362,579 of the 1.1 million families in North Carolina used assistance as of September, state Department of Health and Human Services records show — officials estimate only about 65 percent of people who are eligible actually are receiving food stamps.

“We’re actually doing outreach to get help to more people,” said Jane Schwartz, of the DHHS Division of Social Services. “But the participation rate is still lower than we would like, especially in the western part of the state.”


http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051224/NEWS01/51223046

[citizen snips]

1. Food Stamps will soon be gone.

Medicaid was cut by the repubs. It will only be a matter of time before all programs that help the poor are taken away by the republicans.

[BR_Parkway]

2. Then you'll have to go to church, where they can condemn you

to hell for not thinking their way so that you can have some food. Not that I expect these Pharisees to spend too much of that Faith Based money on the actual poor - not when we need better choir robes than the church down the street!