The prospect of another cut in food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is worrying rural areas in the heart of the country, Peter Gray of WUIS in Springfield, Ill., reports for Harvest Public Media.
University of Illinois economist Craig Gundersen, who researches hunger and food security issues, told Gray, “There are a lot of rural areas with a great deal of challenges -- especially in some very small rural counties. There are definitely pockets of rural counties with really high unemployment rates, really high poverty rates.”
Gray notes, "Since the year 2000, the number of rural counties experiencing high poverty has gone up nearly 30 percent." He went to one of them, Marion County in southern Illinois, which "has a higher percentage of food stamp eligibility than the city of Chicago and is one of many rural counties across the Midwest that depend on the SNAP program – one of five families there qualifies for SNAP."
Kathy Donnelly, the local schools' truant officer, "says many of the families she deals with don’t have a vehicle, so whether they are getting SNAP benefits or not, it’s not easy for them to get access to healthy food," Gray reports, quoting her: “The only public transportation that we have in the area is a transit system that costs a boatload of money to be able to ride, so that’s kind of a dead end. So a lot of these people are on foot.” (Read more)
University of Illinois economist Craig Gundersen, who researches hunger and food security issues, told Gray, “There are a lot of rural areas with a great deal of challenges -- especially in some very small rural counties. There are definitely pockets of rural counties with really high unemployment rates, really high poverty rates.”
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| Pastors
Curt and Kim Matthews in their food pantry in Odin, Ill. They say their clientele has increased nine fold in the past 16 years. (Photo by Peter Gray, Harvest Public Media) |
Kathy Donnelly, the local schools' truant officer, "says many of the families she deals with don’t have a vehicle, so whether they are getting SNAP benefits or not, it’s not easy for them to get access to healthy food," Gray reports, quoting her: “The only public transportation that we have in the area is a transit system that costs a boatload of money to be able to ride, so that’s kind of a dead end. So a lot of these people are on foot.” (Read more)
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