State tries to boost food stamps
Toolbox
By MEL HUFF Times Argus Staff - Published: April 19, 2008
BERLIN — The federal Food Stamp program is "a very powerful tool – in many ways the first line of defense against hunger," said Cynthia LaWare, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, who attended this week's meeting of the Hunger Council of Washington County.
The Food Stamp program also provides a significant economic boost to the state: It generates about $5 million a month in federal payments to Vermont.
"Every Food Stamp dollar spent in Vermont stimulates the economy by 84 cents," LaWare said on Monday. By the end of June the program will have infused more than $110 million into the state's economy.
But the program is underutilized. As of 2005, only 68 percent of those eligible – about 46,000 Vermonters – were taking advantage of the program.
"It's just not good enough," LaWare stated.
Vermont has made a significant effort to increase enrollment, which has since grown to more than 55,000 people. Still, many people who could use Food Stamps don't participate in the program. A survey of 1,000 people revealed that half those sampled believed they didn't meet the qualifications for the program. Another third were working people who said it was hard for them to participate because of their schedules and fluctuations in their incomes.
To remove obstacles to participation and to ensure the program's viability in the face of a shrinking state budget, Vermont is poised to launch a three-year initiative – described as "modernization" – of its Food Stamp program.
Joe Patrissi, the deputy commissioner of economic services for the Agency of Human Services, described a serendipitous innovation that Vermont is modeling its initiative on. After hurricanes wiped out some district offices in Florida, the state had no way of getting Food Stamps to people, so it "cobbled together some call centers" that enabled people to apply online and by telephone.
The new technology provided more ways for people to access benefits. In addition, consolidating business functions and eligibility processing meant more people could be brought into the program while reducing the number of state workers.
Patrissi noted that eliminating the need to come into a state office to apply for Food Stamps makes it possible for people to apply any time of day or night in the privacy of their homes and helps preserve the dignity of applicants. Many proud, elderly people won't go to an office to apply for Food Stamps, he observed.
Finding savings are crucial because the Food Stamp caseload is increasing with the deterioration of the economy.
In addition, he observed, "Every single effort we've got on the table" – targeting the elderly, enrolling people who are visiting food shelves – "is going to increase the caseload." Adopting new technologies will allow the state to accommodate an increased workload without increasing the workforce.
"Modernization can't happen too quickly," Patrissi said. Not only will it improve access, but it will enable the state to provide more services with fewer employees
LaWare has asked to see a strategic plan for the modernization effort by the end of the month, Patrissi said. The $1 million for the initiative will come from an award for accuracy in Food Stamp payments that Vermont won in 2006, along with a Food Stamp grant. Patrissi hopes to complete the implementation in three years.
In the next nine months his division will look into buying an interactive voice response system and an imaging system for storing information.
The imaging system will be used to create a centralized intake-processing unit. All applications will be sent to one place where images of them will be created. They will be given a bar code and indexed and ultimately downloaded into a database. The imaging system and interactive voice response system will be the first pieces in creating a call center and processing unit.
Medicaid is undertaking a similar process of implementing online systems, Patrissi said, but that program is much more complicated. "Eventually, they'll talk to each other," he noted.
Once a client's data is in the system, all benefit programs can be scanned to see what services the person is eligible for. With a single application, eligibility can be established for Food Stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance and other programs. LaWare said, "The goal is to have one point of entry."
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