by Nisa Islam Muhammad
Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)�Marsha Norman has a job and goes to work every day. She also has four children that she struggles to take care of. From one paycheck to the next, she often has to choose between carfare, bills and food. The loser is usually food.

"I just don�t make enough to cover everything. I budget, look for sales and try to make my money stretch, but it�s not enough. I have to get to work. I have to pay rent, but we don�t always have to eat," said Ms. Norman. And she is not alone.

More than 23 million Americans nationwide sought and received emergency hunger relief from America�s Second Harvest network of private charities in 2001, an increase of about 7.5 percent, or nearly two million people, since 1997, according to the Hunger in America report, the largest and most comprehensive examination of Americans who seek emergency food relief and the charitable network that serves them.

"The rise in the number of hungry Americans over the past four years is striking because it occurred even as the wealthiest and most food abundant nation in the world was emerging from one of the strongest economic climates in recent history," said Robert H. Forney, president and CEO of America�s Second Harvest.

Welfare reform, which the government claims as a success, has reduced the number of people classified as "living in poverty" and the number of people receiving food stamps and welfare assistance to levels unmatched in recent years. But the demand for emergency food assistance has increased and the accelerated downturn of the economy in recent months may deal a powerful blow to those already seeking assistance and will likely bring others into food banks, church food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters for help, Mr. Forney said.

"I didn�t really know how bad the problem was until my daughter asked me if a friend could spend the night to work on a project together," said Ms. Norman. "While I was thinking, my daughter said, �I told her we didn�t have any food and she said that was OK.� I was shocked. I live it every day but it just sounded worse hearing it from her. I knew I had to do something to get my children some food. I knew I had to apply for food stamps."

The study shows that federal support programs like food stamps and WIC, and child nutrition programs, like school meals and summer food, are absolutely crucial to helping low-income families survive. But, they aren�t always accessible to the working poor or elderly and often the benefits these programs provide is too small to keep hunger away.

According to the study, a substantial number�nearly 70 percent�of the people served by private emergency hunger-relief agencies are not enrolled in food stamps even though upwards of 75 percent are income eligible. And for those who are enrolled in food stamps, they report that their food stamps only last a few weeks.

If you�ve never missed a meal because there was only enough for the children or didn�t eat because the ketchup, mayonnaise and salad dressing in the refrigerator just wasn�t a meal, you may not understand hunger in the land of plenty.

This is not just the rumble of your stomach alerting you to lunch or dinnertime. This is hunger that doesn�t allow a child to focus in class because after only noodles for dinner there was cereal without milk for breakfast�and sometimes no breakfast at all.

Meanwhile, the federal government reports that new welfare caseload statistics show a continued decline in the number of families receiving temporary assistance, and "the real news is that welfare reform is moving more people into work so that they can support themselves and their families," Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "Welfare reform has helped an unprecedented number of people on welfare to become self-supporting."

Indeed, there has been a 57 percent decline in the number of people enrolled in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), an unprecedented decline in dependency representing nearly 7 million fewer recipients since Congress enacted welfare reform in August 1996.

Despite these gains, however, the country is witnessing poor families make the difficult transition from welfare to work, as their benefits are cut or reduced. Families like the Normans are finding that their meager wages are insufficient to meet their basic needs such as childcare, transportation, and housing. Too often a family finds that it must cut its food budget or turn to a local charity for aid.

Forty-one percent of emergency food clients receive food stamps; 79 percent of those receiving food stamps say that they do not last through the end of the month. Eleven percent of food-stamp clients polled say their benefits have been discontinued, and 20 percent have seen a decrease in benefits. Of the clients not currently receiving food stamps, 40 percent have applied and are awaiting approval for benefits.

Sixty-four percent of client households with children participate in School Breakfast and Lunch programs; 31 percent of emergency clients with children participate in the Special Supplement Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Twenty-one percent of emergency clients with children participate in the Child- and Adult-Care Food Programs, and/or Summer Food Program.

"We�re putting together a coalition of grassroots advocates to make changes in the administration of food stamps and welfare," said Deepak Bhargava, director of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support (NCJIS).

He told The Final Call that leaders from a diverse collection of constituency organizations have come together to launch the Make TANF Work! Campaign. This unprecedented initiative is aimed at repairing the gaping holes in the safety net left by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, or the Welfare Reform Act.

The Make TANF Work! Campaign is an effort to redefine the political landscape and make the needs of all low-income families the centerpiece of welfare reform reauthorization.

"Five years ago, some people were congratulating themselves on ending welfare as we knew it," said Mr. Bhargava. "Today, we are here to say�not this time. With TANF reauthorization, we are going to end welfare reform as they know it."

In the end, TANF did two things: it reduced caseloads and raised new questions it could not answer about poverty�the balance between work and family obligations and immigration.

Low-income workers were forced to choose between their incomes and their children and sacrifice education and training in order to qualify for benefits. Immigrants lost access to a broad range of benefits. Welfare leavers are still in poverty and experiencing hardship.

But the government sees it differently.

Secretary Thompson released a study Nov. 7 comparing programs that emphasize early employment with those that emphasize skill-building, finding that a work-first approach helped welfare recipients find jobs more quickly and was less expensive for states to operate.

Both types of programs helped single parents work during more quarters than they would have without welfare-to-work assistance.

"Having data on what programs work for recipients in states� welfare-to-work efforts will help us tremendously as we prepare for reauthorization of the welfare reform legislation in 2002," said Secretary Thompson. "This study provides valuable insight into the types of programs that may more effectively help recipients find and keep jobs, their economic impact and the potential effect on the entire family."

The study found that the basic education and skill-building approach, which is more expensive to administer, did not produce added economic benefits for clients. Moreover, the early employment approach moved welfare recipients into jobs more quickly than the training approach and was less expensive to operate.

The early employment approach did not affect parents� financial well-being or that of their children any differently than the skill-building approach. Overall, there were few indications of harm or benefit to the well-being of children, but these effects varied by the age of the child.

"This study adds weight to the notions that inspired welfare reform from the beginning � that parents will find work, that they can do so without a lot of additional training, and that their children are generally not adversely affected by their working outside the home," said Wade F. Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families.

Following the tragic events of Sept. 11, the American economy appears on the brink of recession. While this is bad news for all Americans, for people leaving welfare, it is even worse. Despite the government claims of success surrounding welfare reform, former welfare recipients have gone hungry, remained poor and had difficulty finding employment.

"A Recession Like No Other," a new report released Nov. 14 by NCJIS shows that this will be the first economic downturn in recent memory in which millions of low-wage workers lack a safety net.

The report is the first analysis that estimates how many families will fall through the widening holes in the nation�s unemployment insurance, welfare and food stamps safety nets.

For example, if the unemployment rate increases by two percentage points over August 2001 levels, the report estimates that an additional 3.4 million people will be pushed below the poverty line, and that the national poverty rate will increase from 11.9 percent to 13.1 percent.

The study finds that large numbers of families will not qualify for unemployment insurance, welfare or food stamps because of restrictive state policies, time limits, limited funding, and immigrant exclusions.

According to Mr. Bhargava, "As the economic forecast grows dimmer every day, low-income people enmeshed in the current system will remain in poverty without a fundamental change in the TANF block grant."

To combat these needs the Make TANF Work! Campaign is recommending the following changes in the Food Stamp program: ensure all eligible people get benefits; increase the benefit amounts; and increase the eligibility levels.

Regarding TANF, the campaign recommends that TANF: focus on reducing poverty and not caseloads; allow training and education; stop the five year limit on aid; and make appropriate assessments of the needs of the people, among other recommendations.

"The progressive community looks to the next welfare debate with a new advantage: grassroots political savvy. In the last five years, grassroots groups throughout America have won tremendous victories at the state and local level on benefits, living wages, immigration, health care, and many other issues," said Mr. Bhargava.

"It�s one of the great untold stories of the last few years, and the people behind it are prepared to add a new national chapter."