Much of the attention on Alaska’s chronic backlog in processing food stamp applications has focused on administrative stumbles, under-staffing and technical problems, but this year saw an effort to address what many say is the underlying problem: The application itself.
The proposal, backed by Anchorage Democratic Rep. Genevieve Mina and Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel, would enact what’s called broad-based categorical eligibility for the state’s supplemental nutrition assistance program, broadening eligibility and simplifying the application process. The change was approved at the end of this legislative session as an amendment to a bill by the governor dealing with Medicaid.
The state’s chronic backlog of SNAP applications has generated heartbreaking stories across the state, revealing issues of food insecurity and putting extreme stress on food pantries.
“SNAP is Alaska’s strongest anti-hunger program, and people were going hungry, where they had to resort to eating dog food, and kids were taking turns eating food every day,” she said on the floor Wednesday night. “Food pantries are pleading for help … This will help feed thousands of Alaskans at great savings to the state. It helps promote self-sufficiency for Alaskans and government sufficiency for our state.”
If signed into law, the changes would increase the income eligibility cutoff from 30% above the poverty level to twice the poverty level. Importantly, it would also remove the asset test that disqualified recipients if they had more than $4,000 in assets, which advocates say discourages people from saving and complicates the review process. In essence, they argued the system kept people poor while racking up significant costs for the state.
During the session, legislators heard anecdotes about families narrowly losing food stamp benefits after a parent got a minor raise or the family was gifted a car for work. In those cases, advocates said that the loss of food stamp benefits often outweighed the raise. In some cases, kids went hungry, and in others, families declined the raises or gave back the gifts.
Something as minor as a 50 cents raise can be enough to trigger the loss of benefits, Scott Lingle of Anchorage’s Beans Cafe explained at a February hearing on the underlying proposal. He relayed two stories of children whose families are facing food insecurity in Anchorage after they were disqualified from SNAP benefits when they received minor raises: one who asked for seven meals but said six was fine because it was her day to skip eating, and another who started to decline free meals at school because he said he was practicing going hungry.
“They went over that threshold by $7 and were denied SNAP, and when they were denied SNAP, they were also denied free school lunch because they were over that threshold,” he said. “So, here is a young man having to practice to be hungry in the city of Anchorage.”
The amended measure cleared the Senate 20-0, and the House concurred to the changes on a 26-14 vote. Several right-wing Republicans opposed the measure with warnings that it’d make it too easy for people to access social safety net programs.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.