ECONOMY | 'This is a real danger sign that we need to do a lot more to protect children'
If she didn't get food stamps, Angie Minix and her two boys would have had to survive on the peanut butter-and-jelly diet.
The Sauk Village mom isn't alone.
In fact, nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.
The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.
The analysis was released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors say it's a medical issue pediatricians need to be aware of because children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty.
"This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children," Rank said.
Food stamps are a Department of Agriculture program for low-income individuals and families, covering most foods, although not prepared hot meals or alcohol. For a family of four to be eligible, their annual take-home pay can't exceed about $22,000.
According to a USDA report released last month, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps in an average month in 2008, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222.
Minix, who works as a caregiver for an elderly woman, said food stamps helped her get better food to help keep her kids well nourished.
"With $600 a month [in food stamps], it's easier to go to the grocery store and get healthy foods. I like to bake chicken, make spaghetti. You can get fresh produce that are kind of high [priced], and bread that's better than plain white bread," Minix, 37, said.
Minix stopped receiving food stamps when her fiance got a job. But he was recently laid off. Now, Minix says she's hoping to receive the government benefit, again
In Illinois, 740,000 families or about 1.4 million individuals are currently receiving food stamps. That's a 17 percent increase from October 2008, according to the state.
"More people are receiving food stamps, and that trend has increased consistently over the last several years," Illinois Department of Human Services spokesman Tom Green said. "And the last few years have been more dramatic as more people need help to put food on their table."
In September, the 650 pantries in the Chicago Food Depository's network gave food to more people than any single month in the group's 30-year history, executive director Kate Maehr said.
"We're seeing a big increase in the number of people in the community who need food," Maehr said. "Already the base line we have is one-third of the people who get this food are children. "
Rank and Cornell University sociologist Thomas Hirschl studied data from a nationally representative survey of 4,800 U.S. households interviewed annually from 1968 through 1997 by the University of Michigan. About 18,000 adults and children were involved.
Overall, about 49 percent of all children were on food stamps at some point by the age of 20, the analysis found. That includes 90 percent of black children and 37 percent of whites. The analysis didn't include other ethnic groups.
The time span included typical economic ups and downs, including the early 1980s recession. Research and Action Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the analysis underscores that "there are just very large numbers of people who rely on this program for a month, six months, a year."
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, says the study design and survey data are solid. But he says the findings are neither surprising nor troubling.
"That's effectively like saying that at some point in a 20-year period, a parent would be unemployed for a month or so," Rector says.
AP, with Mark Konkol, Francine Knowles, Gannett contributing
