Thread: Where are lobbyists for food stamps?

Where are lobbyists for food stamps?

By Michael Stetz, UNION-TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 12:03 a.m.

There’s a $100 million federal project out there, waiting for takers.

It’s not money for a veterans memorial, a battleship or a tunnel to Coronado. It’s not money for a bridge or a train or a highway. If it were, lobbyists would be elbowing each other out of the way for it, and politicians would be lining up for photo ops.

No, this $100 million is for Grape-Nuts. Or Malt-O-Meal. Or whatever the poor among us choose to spend it on, foodwise.

That amount of money — and more, sometimes — is what advocates for the poor say we lose in San Diego County every year because our enrollment in the federal food-stamps program is so low. Only 35 percent of eligible residents got the benefit last year, meaning the rest of the money stayed out of our county.

That’s been the case every year, for years now.

The county says it’s trying to make improvements in how it gives out food stamps, but it also needs to remain vigilant in its efforts against waste, fraud and abuse.

Critics say that focus makes the system too tough and makes applicants feel like losers, hence the poor participation, the worst among 24 major metropolitan areas, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center.

That group put together the estimate of money left sitting on the table recently.

$100 million?

Let’s load up the shopping cart.

If all that money were actually spent, it would cause a ripple effect, boosting the economy, said George Manalo-LeClair of Oakland-based California Food Policy Advocates.

You would need more supermarket clerks. Farmers would produce more, to handle the demand. Trucks would fire up, to move the goods. The drivers would get paid.

Manalo-LeClair’s agency estimates that the true economic loss to San Diego — including these secondary missed opportunities — was greater than $200 million last year.

The last time the Super Bowl was played in San Diego, in 2003, the economic impact from that was pegged at $367 million.

So we’re missing, like, half a Super Bowl worth of economic might.

Every year.

So who would be a good ally in going after this money? How about grocery stores? After all, you can’t go to the tire store with food stamps.

Well, I spent some time this week trying to enlist their help — or at least to understand why they aren’t going after it themselves.

They don’t want to appear greedy, they say.

While the industry would welcome more food-stamp users, “actively pursuing, even from a lobbying standpoint, sends the wrong message,â€

Those are farm and food industry lobbyists. That's why both the Food Stamp Program and the Free School Lunch Program are in US Department of Agriculture, instead of the Department of Health and Human Services.