Guest Column
Human Services commissioner says there
Gwendolyn L. Harris
Guest Column
Human Services commissioner says there’s no shame in asking for food stamps when your family needs help
By now, I hope you have seen the advertising campaign that the Department of Human Services (DHS) initiated this summer to promote participation in the Food Stamp Program.
"Everyday People Use Food Stamps Every Day" is the slogan, and I believe this is a vital message for us to deliver. For too long, too many people have allowed their pride to stop them from calling out for help.
We know that in New Jersey there are many seniors and working parents and recent immigrants who struggle to feed themselves or their families. Yet we also know that barely half of the households in New Jersey who could qualify for food stamps actually receive them.
The DHS Division of Family Development is committed to changing that. Probably some of those people who are not receiving food stamps simply don’t know they are eligible, and we must address that as well. But I suspect greater numbers never even wonder if they are eligible; they just won’t think of taking what they consider to be "welfare."
I cannot state emphatically enough that the Food Stamp Program is not welfare. It is a cornerstone of our nation’s safety net for low-income families and individuals.
About four of every five households that receive food stamps in New Jersey are not on welfare. The overwhelming majority are headed by working people whose incomes simply don’t stretch far enough.
Those people should feel no shame in taking help when they need and deserve it.
Pride cannot feed you. It will not nourish your children. Everyone who is struggling to put food on the table should reach out to their county board of social services to see if they might qualify for food stamps.
Our ad campaign targets seniors, low-income working parents and immigrants because those groups tend to have large numbers of people eligible for food stamps who do not receive them. The ads are displayed on NJ Transit buses, on supermarket shopping carts, in foreign-language newspapers and in publications aimed at seniors.
Food stamps are available to individuals and families earning up to 130 percent of the Federal Poverty Level –– an annual income of $11,674 for an individual or $23,920 for a family of four. Currently, about 150,000 households in New Jersey receive food stamps, but the federal government estimates that represents only 53 percent of the households that are eligible.
Perhaps you head one of those low-income households, or perhaps you know someone in that situation. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Visit your county board of social services or call the Food Stamp hot line at (800) 792-9773.
There is no shame in calling for help. The true shame would be allowing your family to go undernourished when help is so available.
Gwendolyn L. Harris is commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services.