The Lowndes County director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services spoke to the Rotary club Tuesday about the department’s efforts with regards to SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Formerly called food stamps, this program has been in effect since 1961. It serves more than 28,000 people in the Golden Triangle area.
“You can walk through Walmart and pretty much one in four or one in five is a client of SNAP,” director Jim Sutherland said.
The exact numbers are as follows: for Lowndes county, 23.4 percent of the adult population uses SNAP. For Clay county, it is 29 percent and for Oktibbeha, 18 percent.
The program is entirely electronic, with electronic benefits transfer cards holding a family’s allotted food budget for the month. These cards can only be used for food. Sutherland spoke to the economic benefits of putting this money back into the community.
“It isn’t just low income families that benefit from this,” he said. “The money is used in mom and pop stores. It’s used in grocery stores. And it’s used also in farmer’s markets to buy produce. It economically impacts the Golden Triangle.”
In the last three years, SNAP’s total expenditures for the Golden Triangle were $126.4 million.
“People look at that number and say, ‘Man,’ but the economic benefit is two to one,” Sutherland said. “It’s almost as if $232.7 million was paid out, because it helps those families that need the money and then it’s also used at local grocery stores.”
The maximum amount an individual can receive for a month is $194. This equates to around $6.36 per day.
“It’s not a lot of money, it’s not really something they can live off of,” Sutherland said. “It is a supplement. It’s not meant to be a complete or fully nutritious assistance program.”
Members of the Rotary Club asked Sutherland about the specifics of the program and whether the department had enough manpower to monitor their clients to ensure they were seeking jobs. They also asked what the department could do to uncover fraud and what the consequences were. Sutherland explained the review process that each SNAP recipient goes through every six months, as well as the procedures the department has for ensuring that clients are not receiving more than they are allocated.
Sutherland also discussed SNAP-Ed, which brings in nutritionists to help SNAP clients make healthy decisions, and the department’s TANF work program (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) that assists people in find jobs.
The Department of Human Services has offices in 82 counties, and Sutherland’s office alone has nearly 50 employees. Their goal is to help families become self-sufficient.
“The Bible says the poor will be with you always,” Sutherland said. “And personally I guess I’m part of that, helping those people.”
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