The Raw Story
By David Ferguson
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
An estimated 900,000 U.S. military veterans will lose some or all of their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Friday. According to Think Progress, the program — more commonly known as food stamps — will be cut by $5 billion thanks to budget shortfalls caused by the Nov. 1 expiration of 2009 stimulus funding initiated by President Barack Obama.
Veteran pilot and Iraq War soldier Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org told Raw Story that the cuts coming Friday are unnecessary and unconscionable. Duckworth called the cuts “unacceptable” and Soltz questioned why Republicans in Congress are so “hell-bent” on hurting people in need.
“Cutting assistance to veterans is completely unacceptable,” said Rep. Duckworth. “Congress needs to find ways to cut costs, but compromising our care to veterans is not one of them. We must honor those who served our country and continue to provide the benefits they need. I am hopeful that my colleagues can come together and right this wrong by reinstating funds to the SNAP program to help our veterans.”
Soltz told Raw Story, “It’s revolting that so many men and women who served this nation in uniform are about to be cut off of the help they need the most for them and their families. What’s wholly irresponsible is for the Republican Congress to repeatedly reject the idea of a conference committee to pass a budget, which would help at least stabilize the economy, so many of these families could get off SNAP, and then turn around and fight to cut their SNAP benefits too. I don’t know why they are so hell-bent on hurting the American troops, veterans, and their families who are in need.”
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If you think Tammy Duckworth is wrong, think again. Aside from a lot of veterans getting by on food stamps, the reports of military families on food stamps goes back to the 90's and you read about them here.
As Military Pay Slips Behind, Poverty Invades the Ranks
New York Times
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: June 12, 1994
Like other airmen at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, 21-year-old Jason Edwards worries about tensions far away in North Korea that could erupt into fighting and involve his supply base.
But Airman Edwards has more immediate concerns, too. He is worried about how to feed his 22-year-old wife, Beth, and their two small children on his total pay and allowances of $1,330 a month. In desperation, the Edwardses last month began drawing $228 a month in food stamps to get by.
"It's a very tight squeeze for us," Mrs. Edwards said. "We haven't bought any steaks since we've been here, and whenever I want to cook something with ham, I substitute Spam for it."
In a trend that has senior Pentagon officials deeply troubled, an increasing number of military families are turning to food stamps to make ends meet. Three-quarters of America's enlisted forces earn less than $30,000 a year, and the gap between civilian and military wages is growing.
To be sure, no one ever joined the military to get rich. But neither did they expect to have to go on welfare. Military officials worry that a growing demand for food stamps and other Government assistance may signal larger personnel problems in a culture that preaches self-reliance and self-discipline.
The overall number of military personnel on food stamps is small and difficult to measure because the Government does not track military recipients.
But a 1992 survey by the Defense and Agriculture Departments found that about 3 percent of the 1.7 million service members qualified for food stamps and that 1 percent, or about 17,000 people, received them monthly. The Agriculture Department manages the food stamp program.
The Defense Department said the total value of food stamps redeemed at military commissaries increased to $27.4 million last year from $24.5 million in 1992. That amount included those redeemed by retired military recipients. Food donation centers are bustling at bases from Hawaii to Florida.
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Using food stamps now easier at commissariesWhat is more revolting? Taking food off their tables or the fact they have to be on them in the first place? In my opinion, I have no clue how any of them can sleep at night doing this to citizens but when they don't care about veterans on top of it, that only proves corporate welfare is fine with them above all else.
Army Times
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 29, 2008 16:39:58 EDT
It’s now easier for commissary customers redeeming food stamps to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards — and they have more privacy, too, as all checkout lines now accept these cards just as they do any credit or debit card.
The new checkout system is dubbed the Commissary Advanced Resale Transaction System, or CARTS.
Previously, commissaries had to use stand-alone, state-provided systems to process the benefit cards, and the terminals were installed on only one or two registers. Food stamp benefits are not received overseas.
“On occasion, customers with food-stamp EBT cards found themselves in the wrong line, and we’d have to direct them to use one of the registers with an EBT terminal,” said Gary Hensley, director of the commissary at Fort Benning, Ga., in an announcement from the Defense Commissary Agency. The Fort Benning commissary rang up more than $1.1 million in purchases in the food stamp redemption program in 2007, tops among commissaries. read more here
UPDATE
Food stamp usage levels off at commissaries
Redemptions in recent years greater than increase in past year
Army Times
By Karen Jowers
Staff writer
Oct. 29, 2013
Use of food stamps in commissaries continued to rise last year, although not as sharply as in previous years, while redemptions through the nutrition program for women, infants and children have declined, according to Defense Commissary Agency data.
In fiscal 2013, commissary patrons redeemed $103.6 million worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps. That’s up 5 percent over fiscal 2012. The number of transactions rose by 2 percent, to 968,358.
SNAP redemptions in commissaries began climbing in 2009 when eligibility rules were expanded due to the national economic stimulus programs. But the growth appears to be leveling off.
Commissary officials track the number of transactions and the dollar amount, but they don’t track the status of those using the benefit, so there is no way to compare usage among retirees with active-duty members, for example.
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