Major Organizations

NY State Food Stamps
http://www.otda.state.ny.us/otda/fs/
fs_default.htm

Federal Food Stamp Facts

SSA Publication No. 05-10101, September 2004, ICN 468655
[View .pdf]  (En Español)

The food stamp program helps low-income people buy food. Although it is a federal government program, it is run by state or local agencies.                                        

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10101.html

We are pleased to announce two new programs at Diaspora Community Services.  The first is the Nutrition Outreach Education program which provides food stamp outreach with assistance in completing applications.  And the second is HFNY- Healthy Families New York Program which will provide home based support, training and visiting to pregnant and parenting women in Crown Heights.  

The current Food Stamps Benefits Application is in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian and on the New York Sate site. In order to download and print the application and accompanying instructions, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not, download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

 "Food Stamp Benefits Application" (English) (05/05)

  "How To Complete The Food Stamp Benefits Application" (English) (05/05)

 "Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Spanish) (05/05)

 "How To Complete The Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Spanish) (05/05)

 "Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Arabic) (05/05)

 "How To Complete The Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Arabic) (05/05)

 "Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Chinese) (05/05)

 "How To Complete The Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Chinese) (05/05)

 "Food Stamp Benefits Application" (Russian) (05/05)

USDA Online Pre-Screening Tool for Food Stamps

http://65.216.150.143/fns/

This Pre-Screening Tool can be used to determine if you or a client may be eligible to receive Food Stamp benefits. This Pre-Screening Tool is not an application for Food Stamps; the. application  must be made at your local Food Stamp Office. Click here to find the office that serves your area.

Before you begin, you may want to look up the amounts of your earnings, rent or mortgage, utility bills, child support, day care expenses, medical bills (if you are 60 or older, or disable), child support payments or SSI, social security or VA payments.

Food Assistance Programs 

The Urban Institute published a comprehensive analysis of the application process for TANF, Food Stamps, Medicaid and SCHIP in 2003 comparing six cities -- New York was the largest in population seeking assistance, the largest in immigrant population and the most complex in requirements and process.   

Recent additions and service integrations, announced by Mayor Bloomberg in June of this year are designed to lessen the burden though for immigrants, with limited English proficiency families and illegal immigrant parents with citizen children, the system is fraught with grey areas only an expert can untangle.  Luckily, according to the Urban Institute study, New York City’s TANF trained social workers are among the best.  You will find links to The Community Partner Pilot program and to ACCESS NYC at the end of this article.

The following are highlights from Issues For Agencies and Applicants, Including Immigrants and Limited English Speakers by authors Pamela A. Holcomb, Karen C. Tumlin, Robin Koralek, Randolph Capps, Anita Zuberi.  You can download the entire text at http://www.urban.org/publications/410640.html

·        The vast majority of immigrant families who apply for benefits have both citizens and non-citizens in them and while non-citizen adults are often ineligible for benefits, their children—who are usually citizens—are generally eligible. The mixed-status of many immigrant families and the complicated eligibility rules concerning non-citizens presents challenges for human service agencies as well as immigrant families who may not understand if and how they are affected by the eligibility restrictions.

·        The application process for the full welfare package of benefits is more rigorous in some places than others. Among the study sites, the TANF/FSP/Medicaid application process is the simplest in Seattle and the most complicated in New York City. Among the sites, New York City’s TANF application is the most complex and includes requiring applicants to: attend two eligibility interviews in two different locations, undergo fingerprinting and photographing for fraud prevention purposes, receive a home visit from an eligibility verification investigator, attend a mandatory workforce orientation and attend daily job search classes (five days per week) for the duration of the 30-day eligibility determination period.

·        The combination of providing a simplified application process in a non-welfare setting, supplemented with additional application assistance and language accommodations, appears to increase access to benefits by limited English speakers and/or immigrant families. Participants in this study across the six study sites commonly noted that immigrant families (many of which are mixed status families with citizen children) are more likely to apply for benefits at community health clinics, hospitals, and other nonwelfare settings than initiating an application process for benefits at the welfare office. and is typically much easier to complete than the integrated TANF/FSP/Medicaid application process. For example, finger imaging, home visits and rigorous eligibility verification—procedures used routinely in the TANF and/or food stamps application in some study sites—can be particularly daunting for families who closely associate many of these procedures with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

·        New York City is the only site that requires an additional pre-eligibility verification step. Applicants for cash assistance from all five boroughs of the city must go to the Eligibility Verification Review (EVR) office in Brooklyn as part of the application process. According to administrators, EVR’s independent review of applicants’ documents is designed to detect altered or forged documents and identify genuine documents. The fingerprints and photographs of applicants are stored on a computer and used to verify identity as part of the applicant eligibility verification review. However, EVR investigators do not receive copies of documentation and case notes from the welfare offices (called Job Centers) where applicants initiate the process, so applicants must bring the same documents to both interviews.13 They may also ask for additional information that was not already requested by Job Center staff.

·        The first specialized Refugee and Immigrant Job Center opened in April 2001 in lower Manhattan. A second specialized office of this kind opened in January 2002 in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Refugee and Immigrant Job Center expanded the overall number of language groups served by including languages not covered at its Manhattan counterpart and does not serve Spanish speakers. Approximately 90 percent of cases handled by these offices are limited English proficient. Together, the centers serve about 6,000-6,500 cases, a small but significant share of the city’s limited English speaking public assistance caseload—estimated in June 2001 to be about one-fifth (19 percent or 31,833 cases) of the public assistance caseload.

Food Stamp Basics

a. Automatic Eligibility
If everyone in your household receives welfare or SSI, then your household is automatically eligible for food stamps. You do not need to determine if you meet the income and resource qualifications below.

b. Income
Your gross monthly income must be below the following amounts for your household size (effective 10/1/05):

Your household’s “monthly gross income” is what your household earns each month before taxes and any other deductions. Households where someone is disabled (includes recipients of SSI, SSD, veterans’ disability benefits) or 60 years old or older have higher gross income limits.

c. Resources
To qualify for food stamps, your household must not have more than $2,000 in resources, or $3,000 if one person in the household is 60 or older or disabled. Resources are things like your money in the bank or any stocks or bonds you own.

Source:  South Brooklyn Legal Services
For more information on immigrant qualifications visit: http://www.sbls.org/gbufs8.htm 

New York City Food Assistance Program Enhancements

In June, Mayor Bloomberg announced additional locations for  The Community Partner Pilot Project that will modernize the food stamp application process and enable soup kitchens and food pantries to become locations where potentially eligible individuals and families can get help applying for the program. The technology, developed by HRA, allows food stamp offices to process applications received from community groups, as well as in-person applicants, in a new interactive, paperless process. The Community Partner Pilot was launched this year in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.

The Food Stamp Community-Partner Pilot Project is a partnership among HRA, the USDA, FoodChange, and the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH), and was created by HRA and paid for with a $1 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Additionally, three food programs were added to ACCESS NYC, an online resource that promotes self-sufficiency among New York City's residents by providing a single point of entry to City, State, and Federal human service benefit programs. With the addition of these programs-the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC), the School Meals Program, and the summer meals program-families will be able to determine if their children are eligible for programs that ensure access to nutritious food. ACCESS NYC is an online tool that brings 28 different city, state, and federal human service benefit programs-including food stamps-into a single website, which is available in seven languages. By entering basic household information into the site at www.nyc.gov, applicants can obtain a list of the programs for which they are potentially eligible, print partially-complete application forms, as well as find office locations if they prefer to apply in person.

ACCESS NYC has three steps:

Step 1 In the first step, you can provide general information about your household to get an idea of the kinds of programs which might be available to you. This will take approximately 5 minutes.

Step 2 In the second step, you can enter more detailed information about yourself and your household. ACCESS NYC will then provide more specific information about those programs that might be available to you. This will take approximately 20 minutes.

Step 3 In the final step, ACCESS NYC can help you with the application process. This will take approximately 10 minutes.

Find out more about the programs available in ACCESS NYC

Search for office locations for the programs

View and print forms to apply for the programs

Source:  www.nyc.gov

See previous Newsletter topics and resources: Older Adults Family Literacy Women's Health Teen Pregnancy Prevention Managing Stress HIV/AIDS Awareness

Written exclusively for Diaspora Community Services
by Zella Jones
www.marketxmarket.com