Missourians currently suffering with under/unemployment are facing additional challenges in 2014 if a proposed rule put forward by Gov. Nixon’s administration is approved in its current form.
The new proposal to limit food stamps for some jobless Missourians is estimated to impact on more than 100 Missouri counties. Missouri would be one of only six states to reject available federal benefits which currently bring millions of dollars to Missouri grocers and their surrounding communities, while also alleviating hunger.
For the past 12 years, with both Democratic and Republican governors, Missouri has consistently sought to protect jobless Missourians from hunger, applying for the broadest exemption possible from application of the very harsh food stamp time limit provisions in the 1996 welfare reform law. That law limited food stamps for able-bodied adults without dependents to three months out of every three years, unless in an approved work activity for 20 hours per week, but put no money into job training.
The Missouri State Hunger Atlas (2013) shows that Missouri has not yet recovered from recession, as food insufficiency surged to 16.7 percent, surpassing the national average of 14 percent. Currently, 1.3 million Missourians don’t have enough to eat, causing Missouri to rank in the Top Ten of Food Insecure States.
MASW (www.masw.org) will partner with other not-for-profits, families, and individuals to combat this latest assault on neighborhood stability. MASW encourages utilization of a statewide exemption from the time limits for as long as it is available from the federal government. Gov. Nixon should join us in demanding that federal legislators repeal this heartless and unwise part of the 1996 law.
Jeanette Mott Oxford, executive director
Missouri Association for Social Welfare
St. Louis