Oregon is the only state in the nation to show an increase in food stamp participation from June 1996 to June 2001, according to data compiled by the Food Research and Action Center, a national anti-hunger organization.
While most states have experienced double-digit decreases in Food Stamp Program participation since the implementation of welfare reform in 1996, Oregon has become a national leader in fighting hunger and poverty by working to make sure low-income Oregonians have access to the food they need. Since June 2000, the number of food stamp recipients in the state has increased by 135,000 people. This increase is a direct result of the reforms won by Oregon Action and our allies during this campaign.
We also won on the national level, successfully achieving all four of the following demands in this year's Food Stamp reauthorization.
This was an important victory as it governs the next 5 years of the food stamp program. Both Senators Wyden and Smith supported our campaign. We urge you to thank Senators Smith and Wyden and reinforce their support for these important improvements.
Although we have won our demands, we will continue to work to monitor their implementation. We are focusing now on again testing the program by following applicants through their application process - following up on our first two testing projects that were key elements of our victory.
Food
Stamp recipients and other concerned activists met with Congressional staff
and Adult and Family Services officials to demand improvements in Oregon's
Food Stamp Program.
Oregon Action began working to expand access and improve service to Oregonians eligible for Food Stamps during the fall of 1999. Members of Oregon Action described alarming problems when applying for food stamps. Many applicants experienced long delays at the Adult and Family Services (AFS) Division offices where food stamps are processed. Others reported that they felt discouraged and mistreated by AFS workers. Some detailed incidents at AFS offices that appeared to be in violation of food stamp law. Many Oregon Action members felt that AFS offices were more focused on creating barriers to the food stamp program than helping them enroll.
The food stamp program is Oregon's largest and most important program in the fight against hunger, particularly for children. Benefits are modest. In Oregon, the average per person benefit is $70 per month, but food stamps can mean the difference between hunger and a healthy diet for families. Enrollment in the food stamp program was declining rapidly while requests to food banks were skyrocketing. Late in 1999, the US Department of Agriculture confirmed what our members were telling us — Oregon was the hungriest state in the nation.
We began a testing project — following 25 eligible applicants through the application process — to understand what barriers prevented eligible people from enrolling in the food stamp program. We examined the enrollment policies and practices at seven AFS local branch offices in Portland and Medford, Oregon in order to identify policies and practices that hinder applicants from applying for food stamps. The results have been published in our Hunger Pangs report.
From this research we developed four basic demands for reform:
Oregon Action members, as well as other hunger advocates, met frequently with the Inter-Agency Coordinating Council on Hunger (ICCH) — the state agency responsible for reforming AFS — and testified vigorously to the need for strong, immediate action. In August of 2000, the ICCH agreed to all of our demands and issued a memo outlining the changes that AFS agreed to adopt.
OA members have met with AFS officials in countless meetings to develop a shortened application — going from 16 to 4 pages and possibly 2 pages in the future. We have worked with AFS to develop a Bill of Rights that is now posted in food stamp offices throughout the state.
Between June and December 2000, the number of Food Stamp participants in Oregon increased by 17,759 individuals- an increase of 9.5%. By January 2001, an additional 9,579 individuals were added, an increase of 14.6 over the June figures. These figures show that the reforms we pushed for have made a real difference in the lives of thousands of people in Oregon.
In early 2001, OA began a new testing project. Even before it was finished, it was clear that AFS was doing better, but there was still plenty of room for improvement. To keep the pressure one, OA held a meeting with Congressional staff and Adult and Family Services officials on Monday, March 26th. The event was co-sponsored by Rural Organizing Project, CAUSA and the Oregon Center for Public Policy. More than 100 people crowded into a standing-room-only crowd to demand improvements reforms from AFS, including rule changes to increase benefits to some legal immigrant families and to demand reform. You can see more photos from this meeting here.
In April 2001, we released a followup testing project, Still Not Making the Grade, and outlined further improvements needed to strengthen the Food Stamp program in Oregon.
As a result, AFS committed to continue its implemation of OA's recommended reforms to improve food stamp access is Oregon. Moreover, less than a week later, AFS met the coalition's demand to change administrative rules in order to increase food stamp access to some immigrant families. They also cancelled their plans to create an international office in Portland, requiring all non-English speaking applicants to go to one site, rather than to the site closes to them. Not only would be inconvenient to applicants, but people feared it could lead to civil rights violations, substandard service and racial targeting.
Members have attended national conferences of food stamp officials to testify about our research and our campaign and have met with USDA and Office of Civil Rights officials to discuss needed reforms. Here at the state level and nationally, Oregon Action has been setting an example of how effective grassroots organizing, combined with solid research and strong alliances, can improve the lives of thousands of people.
Campaign Allies
Oregon Action could not have accomplished so much, so quickly without our allies. Because so much needed doing, we all took on different reform goals in order to work smarter.
- Oregon Center for Public Policy produced important research reports that focused press attention on this issue. They testified at the ICCH meetings and were relentless in pushing for expanded access throughout the state.
- Rural Organizing Project generated letters from all over the state to ICCH members. They also won their own campaign to win extended benefits in surplus labor counties, helping rural people in counties where unemployment made "getting a job" more difficult.
- CAUSA helped us identify non-English speaking applicants for the testing project and helped us with translation at some of our meetings. They also won their own campaign, getting the state to agree to support restoring benefits to legal immigrants.
- Oregon Food Bank attends every ICCH meeting and works tirelessly on behalf of hungry people in Oregon. In December 2000 they won their campaign to expand elibility to folks who in the past were disqualified because they owned cars or other assets that made them ineligible.
- Northwest Federation of Community Organizations helped us design and carry out the testing project and published our research.