Needy Americans: A New Kind Of Crowd

The current crisis has changed the way that people think about a great many things.

Before the unraveling began, a lot of Americans were convinced that savings were irrelevant and that having a lot of debt wasn’t something to be overly worried about. Many also envied and respected the movers-and-shakers on Wall Street and in corporate America. And finally, most likely believed that America was and would remain the undisputed economic, social, and political leader of the free world.

Now, though, these and other beliefs have been called into question, including, as the Financial Times reveals in “Assistance Soars in US,” the demographic characteristics of today’s needy Americans.

Barbecue season is at least a month away in Woodstock, a community of 20,000 people 60 miles north-west of Chicago, yet several shoppers at the checkout at Wisted’s supermarket have loaded their trolleys to the brim with meat and poultry.

“It’s the first of the month and I just got money on my Link card,” one woman customer said last week. “I’m restocking my freezer. I haven’t been grocery shopping for two weeks.”

Eric Hendricks, the store manager, explained that the first day of every month was when people on the US government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - commonly referred to by its former name, “food stamps” - received their money, paid electronically on to a Link brand debit card.

Woodstock, in suburban Chicago’s McHenry county, might seem an unlikely place to witness the US on food aid.

The town is laid-back, middle class and predominantly white. Large, single-family homes predominate. But as the US unemployment rate rises, many in the middle class are finding themselves unable to pay bills and are seeking assistance for the first time.

Mr Hendricks said he had noticed the number of shoppers using Link cards increasing every month over the past eight months.

“The middle class is really struggling to get by here,” he said.

Over the year to January, the number of people receiving food stamps rose by 4.6m to a record 32.2m - or one in 10 US citizens. Over the past five years, almost 10m have enrolled.

In Europe, meanwhile, anecdotal evidence points to a surge in people getting food aid from charities.

Josette Sheeran, the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme - who deals with food emergencies in some of the world’s poorest countries such as Ethiopia - has noted the spread of food problems.

“The needs are everywhere - in rich countries, food banks are being drawn down,” she said. “Hunger will greatly increase this year.”

The biggest US domestic anti-hunger scheme involves food stamps, which accounted for $37.7bn (€28.1bn, £25.5bn) in food aid last year. But other organisations, mostly from the private sector, are assisting even more people.

At the Woodstock Bible Church, Kathryn Birchfield, an administrator, said demand for the church’s weekly free lunch and food pantry was increasing steadily. Four years ago, 15 families used to come for the lunch and to collect food. Now about 85 families have been turning up.

“The crowd is getting much more middle class, including some of our own congregants,” said Ms Birchfield. “We give out three days’ worth of groceries. People reckon if they save that money, they can put it towards paying the mortgage.”

Households are eligible for food stamps if they have less than $2,000 in the bank and a collective income no more than 30 per cent above the federal poverty level. For example, a family of four must earn $2,297 a month or less to claim up to $668 a month in food stamps - an amount that was increased this month from its previous level of $588 as a result of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus.

The proportion of people claiming food stamps in McHenry county is only 4 per cent - lower than the national average of 10.5 per cent. However, the proportion of claimants is increasing faster than anywhere else in the region - with a 25 per cent rise in the past 18 months.

While some local businesses have folded, employers in the area have also eliminated jobs, cut back on overtime and sacked workers, only to rehire them on temporary contracts to avoid paying benefits. The result is that McHenry county’s unemployment rate rose to 9.2 per cent in February, the highest since 1992.

Sue Rose, community service director at the McHenry county housing authority, suggested that the disparity between the area’s high unemployment rate and low proportion of welfare applicants might be a result of some middle-class people being unaware or unwilling to use such services.

“People here have no clue about food stamps,” she said. “Some think they’re not eligible for it because they own their homes. We’re also trying to get people over the pride and embarrassment of applying - we spend a lot of time encouraging, counselling and consoling people. We tell them it’s OK to apply for benefits.”

Ms Rose noted that the economic downturn was forcing a reassessment of ideas about the kind of people who experience poverty.

“A decade ago, most homeless people around here were single, mostly male, and many with drug and alcohol problems. Now the majority are intact families - couples with children,” she said.

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