Kane County Reporter

If the state ups the ante for food-stamp eligibility by asking more of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, families might enjoy better health, and Illinois might enjoy greater wealth, Senate District 22 GOP candidate Tracy Smodilla said recently.

 

SNAP benefits low-income families nationwide. Smodilla wants to see healthier choices made with the stipends dispensed to Illinois families and is also calling for nutrition education to encourage the use of dietary guidelines to merit continued funding through food-stamp programs such as SNAP in Illinois.

 

“I believe all states should be examining the successes and failures of entitlement programs, including SNAP,” Smodilla said. “While we have a moral obligation to help support the neediest, we must also commit to the morality of teaching self-sufficiency, not government dependency.”

 

Smodilla suggested that drafting a contract clarifying the benefits’ end date and ensuring better comprehension of individuals’ needs and areas of deficient knowledge, as well as gauging benefit recipients' willingness to give back while receiving benefits, such as by volunteering, would be helpful to all parties.

 

“What could they do in exchange for benefits while they are becoming self-sufficient?” she asked, noting the need for job creation to support their goals of future independence. “For example, do they need job training, rehabilitation from addictions and even basic life skills?”

 

Smodilla said basic household skills — menu planning, budgeting, shopping and cooking — are a crucial part of the foundation of good nutrition. Additionally, she said the SNAP program should not just be about obtaining food, but also should include organizational goals.

 

“Setting expectations on the beneficiary provides them the opportunity to become active participants in their journey to self-sufficiency: knowing there’s a start date, an end date and a plan that they must commit to in order to receive benefits sets them up for success,” Smodilla said, noting that two specific populations that need attention are veterans and recent parolees.

 

“They need very specific and particular attention to assimilation to ensure they don’t slip through the cracks,” Smodilla said.

 

Smodilla also mentioned the need to help families avoid undesirable foods, especially in “food desert” areas where fresh produce is not easily accessible.

 

“Sugary and salty snacks, beverages and ‘luxury’ items should be excluded to optimize the nutritional value of the benefit and stretch the dollar value of the benefit,” Smodilla said. “The intention of the program is not to make everyone ‘feel good’ or prevent anyone from feeling ‘excluded’; the program was intended to provide nutritious food to keep you healthy.”

 

Smodilla proposed an alternative such as a public-private initiative to develop cashless stores similar to food pantries, where SNAP beneficiaries would have access to nutritious food.

 

Smodilla suggested that through more diligent nutritional education and streamlined strategies addressing both the backgrounds and current needs of recipients, families could enjoy overall better health, and Medicaid costs could even be lowered, noting that if beneficiaries become more responsible for meal planning and budgeting under the guidelines of the monthly benefit, perhaps obesity, diabetes and heart-disease rates would fall.

 

“This would also cut down on the abusive fraud that remains pervasive in the program, specifically food-stamp trafficking, where benefits are swapped for cash,” Smodilla said. “Bottom line, though, is that any program to reduce the cost of entitlement programs must be carefully thought through and implemented correctly and completely.”

 

Illinois would not be the first state to take more initiative for responsible administration of SNAP benefits. In Maine, welfare reforms that were implemented in 2014 appear to be working.

 

Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s administration mandated that healthy adults without children who were on public assistance would be required to work, train to improve their work skills or volunteer at least part-time to remain eligible for food stamps. If individuals refused to participate, their benefits would be cut off after three months.

 

The number of food-stamp beneficiaries in Maine subsequently dropped to 4,500 by the beginning of 2015, and today, only 1,500 able-bodied adults remain SNAP beneficiaries.

 

The long-term effects of such welfare reform are only just beginning to become clear. The State of Maine undertook a study to document and verify the advantages of its reconstructed welfare regulations, with its Department of Health and Human Services working in conjunction with the state's Department of Labor.

 

Data gleaned from the study revealed that the adult subjects experienced an average of 114 percent rise in their income over the course of a year.

 

The question for Illinois is whether Maine’s example, perceived as radical by some, could possibly work as well. Gov. LePage fought the Obama administration for some of his reforms, attempting to ban soda and junk food from allowable purchases, but lost that battle.

 

“It’s time for the federal government to wake up and smell the energy drinks,” LePage said, alleging that the federal government was effectively hypocritical in its oversight, scolding national leaders for “…the tragedy of billions in wasted taxpayer dollars that buy candy and soda through a program that was originally designed to reduce hunger.”