For those who think Sioux Falls is sheltered from the recession, check out these numbers (Bread for the World)
• SD food stamp enrollment saw an incredible one-year increase from Sept.’08 to Sept.’09: 34% !!
Food stamps traditionally go up and down with the economy. But no one envisioned such a huge one-year increase.
(The Food Stamp program is now called SNAP.)
Find the data for your county here:
http://dss.sd.gov/foodstamps/data/foodstampdatapast/index.asp
Minnehaha County residents will be completely shocked by their 48% increase.
Let your local Social Services workers know you appreciate them. They are working hard.
One more note: Even if you include up to 4,000 households using commodities rather than food stamps (option available on reservations), there are still thousands of eligible low-income households NOT signed up for food stamps, easily 15,000 to 20,000 or more. The state should campaign for them to sign up. (It’s all federal funds.)
• Food tax refunds’ dismal reach: less than 1% of SD’s low-income population.
Only 630 households in the whole state are receiving the quarterly food tax refunds. Make sure your local media report this.
Why is it important?
• People pay a lot of money for the tax. Every year the money families pay in food tax would cover meals for 3 weeks.
• There is a movement afoot to raise sales tax for new city projects, even tho’ cities have other ways to raise funds. In an attempt to make this palatable, the draft of the state legislation says cities may refund the new tax to their low-income residents. So far, there is no effective way to do refunds. Such refund programs are inherently ineffective. People need to know, so they don’t think this option would solve the problem of a higher sales tax, and the resulting higher the cost of living.