Foundation Journal

Missouri SNAP/food stamp applicants needlessly wait longer than expected when they apply for well-deserved food assistance because application are hand-written and submitted by mail. Anything that can be done to help workers fill a gap in stagnant wages helps Missouri communities. New Jersey has pending legislation that would provide information to SNAP applicants on when their application was received. “There is a hunger crisis in New Jersey that is being made worse by a mismanaged food assistance program that leave some families without food waiting up to six months for assistance,” said Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union in a January 26, 2015 NewJersey.com article . “It is unconscionable to make families and children go hungry that long.” In Misssouri applicants are required to mail or deliver in person hand-written applications to a Social Services office. Once applications are sent, people applying do not receive a notice that Missouri office received the applications. In fact, appli...

The best I can do today is share photos and a report from Jane Quinn on her field trip to Shatto Milk Company with her second grade class. I originally planned to join her but spent the day in Topeka for an agency conference for the area food bank. Jane grew up on a dairy farm near Amity, Missouri a few miles from the fast-growing Shatto Dairy in Osborn, Missouri. Shatto has 425 dairy cows milked twice a day, requiring 35 farm workers to handle the full operation of milking, milk production and bottling the product. The dairy has a 2000 gallon holding tank where they produce a variety of milk and cheese products that are available in local grocery stores. She has always maintained a fondness for farm life, especially the dairy farm variety. The farm she grew up on maintained a 50 dairy cow herd during the 1970's when she grew. She was eager to share the dairy farm on the field trip not only for Shatto's success at locally produced, small farm milk production but also f...

Missouri workers face unprecedented attacks on their livelihoods, especially as they try to weather the ongoing economic recession. Missouri legislators are working this legislative session to further reduce state TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) benefits and force applicants to undergo drug testing . No pending legislation is requiring corporate executives or employees of large businesses receiving government subsidies to be tested for drugs, though fraud and corruption by those recipients of government benefits greatly exceed fraud by low-income workers. Missouri already provides one of the lowest allowable receipt of state TANF benefits in the U.S.; it's one of 15 states that max out a family's annual benefits to between 10 and 20% of poverty level. The federal poverty level is $18,310 for a family of three. Over the last 15 years, the national TANF caseload has declined by 60 percent, even as poverty and deep poverty have worsened. The numbers of fam...