Thread: FL-College students on food stamps up 44%

Miami Herald

Posted on Wed, Aug. 13, 2008
More college students turn to food stamps
BY EVAN S. BENN AND SCOTT ANDRON
In a down economy, some Florida college students have found a new form of financial aid: food stamps.
The number of Sunshine State students receiving stamps was up 44 percent in July compared with the same time in 2007.

That's about twice the rate of increase for food-stamp recipients in the population as a whole.

Statewide, 54,116 students were receiving the stamps, including 10,506 in Miami-Dade County alone. Broward County had 4,311, according to figures from the state Department of Children & Families. Monroe County had 51.

''It's pretty much impossible to get by anymore without some help,'' said John English, a Palm Beach Community College student who has received stamps.

English, 20, said he was in a halfway house when he moved to South Florida from Ohio. And signing up for the stamps wasn't hard.

''I got in easy,'' he said. ``But then I got a job that paid a decent amount, and I couldn't qualify for food stamps anymore.''

English later changed jobs. He now works at Best Buy in Boca Raton, and he again qualifies for help. He applied Monday at a Department of Children & Families service center in Delray Beach.

FACEBOOK GROUP

English is a member of a Facebook group -- ''I Ain't Ashamed to Be on Food Stamps.'' The group had 109 members, mostly college students, as of Tuesday.

Food banks are also reporting an increase in student traffic.

''They're in school, trying to better themselves, and times are hard,'' said Barbara Morris, volunteer liaison at the Cross Road Food Bank and Pantry in Fort Lauderdale. ``They're just trying to do what they can to make it.''

The spike in student food-stamp use comes during a time of rising unemployment and growing inflation in Florida.

What's more, during the recent housing boom, parents and students sometimes used their homes as ATMs, leaving them with little or no equity to borrow against for college expenses.

''We've got economic hardships all around,'' said Flora Beal, a DCF spokeswoman in Miami. ``With college students, you are looking at people who are not making a lot of money to begin with.''

DCF manages the food-stamp program in Florida on behalf of the federal government, which pays for it.

It's easier than you might expect for students to qualify for the stamps, which now take the form of a special debit card instead of paper.

To qualify, a single student must have a monthly income of less than $1,107 and meet one of the following criteria:

• Be the caretaker of a child under 6.

• Participate in a federally financed work-study program.

• Work at least 20 hours a week.

There are other criteria, but those are the most common requirements.

The $1,107 maximum monthly income might seem like a major eligibility obstacle if the student's parents are paying expenses. But that isn't necessarily so. The reason: Under federal rules, many non-cash payments don't count as income. If the parents pay $700 a month directly to a landlord for a student's rent, for example, that doesn't count.

However, if the parents gave the money directly to the student, who in turn pays the rent, then it would count as income, said Nivaldo Cruz, policy unit manager for DCF's food-stamp program in Miami-Dade County.

$162 A MONTH

Under the food-stamp program, a single recipient receives up to $162 a month to be used for food, depending on income, Cruz said.

But food-stamp recipients can't just go into a grocery and buy whatever they want. The debit card can be used to buy only food staples such as milk, bread, cereal, meat, fruits and vegetables. Alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, toilet paper, toothpaste, pet food and prepared deli foods such as rotisserie chickens are not allowed.

Nor are food-stamp applications a suitable place for college-student mischief: Deceiving the government to get food stamps is a crime punishable with jail time and fines.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

Nor are food-stamp applications a suitable place for college-student mischief: Deceiving the government to get food stamps is a crime punishable with jail time and fines.

Which is what many illegal aliens do every day to get their freebies. DECEIVE. But that's ok, the law doesn't apply to them, they're S-P-E-C-I-A-L.

If those students are U.S. Citizens, they're probably not able to find part time jobs because the Illegal Aliens have them all!

Originally Posted by MarkM

If those students are U.S. Citizens, they're probably not able to find part time jobs because the Illegal Aliens have them all!

Thats what i was thinking and the fact of the revolving door at most places of employment for them .