Tag: SNAP benefits

Job Training Would Be Required For Grocery Benefits Under Bill

A bill under consideration in the West Virginia Senate would require participants in a grocery assistance program receive job training if they are currently unemployed.

Job training may soon be required for unemployed participants in West Virginia’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Each month, SNAP provides eligible low-income households with a monetary supplement to their food budget, with the goal of reducing food insecurity. SNAP is a nationwide program administered in West Virginia by the Department of Human Services.

Currently, adults who receive SNAP benefits in West Virginia are eligible to receive employment training through the program.

Senate Bill 562 would make job training a requirement for adult participants employed for less than 30 hours per week, provided that they do not have certain disabilities or meet other exemptions.

At a meeting of the Senate Workforce Committee on Tuesday, lawmakers discussed a new version of the bill that expanded the age requirement for this new provision to age 60. An earlier draft of the bill would only have required participants ages 18 to 51 to participate in the training.

Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, who serves as chair of the committee, described the job training requirement as an opportunity to support residents in need.

“It’s my opinion, after researching all of this and dealing with everyone, we have more resources than ever to help folks,” he said. “I think it’s a great time to be able to help them.”

The committee voted unanimously in favor of the bill, sending it to the Senate Finance Committee for further discussion.

Lawmakers Consider Requiring Photo ID On EBT Cards

Recipients of federal benefits like SNAP will have to have an identifying photo on their EBT card if a bill moving through the legislature becomes law.

Recipients of federal benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will have to have an identifying photo on their Electronic Benefits Transfer card if a bill moving through the legislature becomes law.

Senate Bill 450 would require everyone with an EBT card to be issued a new card, with their photo on the card, to prevent theft and fraud.

Jacquelyn Hoppe, director of the West Virginia EBT office, was questioned by lawmakers about the possible changes to the benefit system.

Sen. Laura Chapman, R-Ohio, asked Hoppe whether trusted family members would still be allowed to use the EBT card on behalf of the recipient.

“If they present the card and have the correct pin, then they’ve been authorized to use that card by the actual primary, they’re probably a person in the household,” Hoppe said. “The retailers, on the other hand, have a different aspect to look at, and retailers can’t discriminate against anyone who presents an EBT card.”

The committee passed an amended committee substitute to the Senate Finance Committee. The amendment was to extend the date of implementation from July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025, to allow for time to create policies.

How SNAP Has Changed Lives And An Archaeological Dig At WVSU, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, SNAP is a federal nutrition program – the name stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It used to be called food stamps. The program started as a pilot project in the 1960s in McDowell County. Trey Kay learns more about the program that some say has changed lives.

On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia is one of the top recipients for food aid of any state. SNAP is a federal nutrition program – the name stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It used to be called food stamps. The program started as a pilot project in the 1960s in McDowell County.

Since then, it’s reduced poverty and hunger across the nation, but it gets caught up in political debates and election cycles. On the next Us & Them podcast, host Trey Kay learns more about a program that some say has changed lives.

Also, in this show, West Virginia State University (WVSU) is holding its archaeological field school at the historic Hale House in Malden. Delaney Wells reports.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.

Teresa Wills is our host.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

SNAP: Do The Hungry Get More Policy Than Nutrition?

Hunger and poverty are universal challenges, but in the U.S., for more than 50 years, support programs like SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, have provided help to those in need. On this Us & Them, host Trey Kay talks with three West Virginians — a retiree, a mom and a lawmaker — who all say that nutritional support has made a difference in their lives.

More than 12 percent of Americans, or 42 million people, need help getting enough food to eat.  

In West Virginia, that number is about 18 percent. That help comes from a federal program called SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. The Mountain State is one of the top recipients of SNAP benefits — nearly 45 percent are older adults or families with someone who’s disabled, while nearly 60 percent are families with children. 

The government’s food support program actually has its roots in McDowell County, West Virginia where it began as a pilot project in the 1960s. Since then the program has reduced poverty and hunger across the nation. Today, SNAP gets caught up in political debates and election cycles. 

On this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay talks with three people, a retiree, a mom and a lawmaker who all say that nutritional support has made a difference in their lives. 

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Reenie Kittle, who’s 74, from Harding, W.Va., is a widow and retired with a physical disability. She does what she can to get by on a meager fixed income.

“How do I live on a fixed income? Very scarcely,” Kittle told Us & Them host Trey Kay as they sat in the living room of her converted double-wide home. “So I have to buy pellets for my wood stoves in the winter months. I have to pay the water bill… all my bills. I don’t go out very much ‘cause I can’t afford the gas. With my income and my bills of $1,300 a month, I am lucky if I have $200, maybe $250 left over to try to find food. My neighbor sometimes will bring me supper, and that’s been a blessing to me. They try to help me food-wise as much as they can. For SNAP, I qualify for $23 a month. It is nothing. They just tell me that they’ve reviewed my case and that’s as much as they can do. They have no extra money to give and that’s it.”

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Each month, Reenie Kittle heads to the grocery store in Elkins, W.Va. with $23 from the federal government’s SNAP program. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — it used to be called “Food Stamps.” 

Reenie beelines past the produce section, beyond the tower of packaged strawberries, the cold case full of carrots and greens. She’s not here to buy what she wants to eat. She’s here to stretch the money she is allotted to the very last penny.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Roughly 18 percent of West Virginia residents use SNAP benefits. Nationally, that number is more like twelve percent, which means that 42 million people across America need help getting enough to eat. 

Seth DiStefano, with the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, lobbies to support programs like SNAP — which became a centerpiece of the social reform programs in President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” initiative. DiStefano says SNAP has its roots in West Virginia. This goes back to when President John F. Kennedy started the original “Food Stamp” program in McDowell County.

“It truly is one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the history of the United States,” DiStefano said.

Photo Credit: West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy
Mary Kathryn Molitor, 34, lives in St. Albans, W.Va. with her three daughters and an old dog named Brenda. Mary Kathryn works full-time at a local credit union, making about $13 an hour. When the Us & Them team first spoke with her, she wasn’t sure she wanted to talk on the record about her relationship with SNAP saying it was her “dirty little secret.”

“I don’t tell people that I use SNAP benefits because I know what that person looks like and that person doesn’t look like me,” Molitor explains while pulling one of her wriggling twin daughters up onto her hip. “That person doesn’t have a college education. That person doesn’t have a full-time job. That person isn’t who I am. I find it embarrassing. I don’t want to admit that I need help.”

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
To supplement her family’s food supply, Mary Kathryn Molitor often goes to the Capital Market in Charleston and checks to see if they have wilted vegetable plants that are about to be discarded. She takes them home to plant in her garden.

“Those are pumpkins right there? Volunteers. All those tomatoes? Volunteers. Sunflowers? Volunteers,” Molitor said while showing Us & Them host Trey Kay the plants around her home. “After Halloween – I threw my pumpkins into a couple of different areas and they rotted, seeded and they are giants now! They grow on their own. They volunteer! If anybody needs a free pumpkin this year, just come to my house!”

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Del. Jonathan Pinson represents the 17th District of West Virginia’s House of Delegates, on the western border of the state including parts of Mason and Jackson counties. Pinson, a Republican and a Baptist pastor, was first elected in 2020. 

“I cannot say that I have issues with [SNAP] in general,” Pinson told Us & Them host Trey Kay when they met in Point Pleasant, W.Va. “One of the reasons that I can’t say that I’m opposed to that is because I think back prior to my adoption… at 15 years old… I go back to Saturday mornings sitting in a line at the armory in Florida, picking up corn flakes and powdered milk and five pound jugs of peanut butter. And I can tell you that there were many, many meals that I wouldn’t have had, had my parents not been on food stamps — and at the time, ‘commodities,’ that’s what it was called. So I can’t say that I’m opposed to the government helping when help is warranted.”

Photo Credit: West Virginia Legislature

DHHR Warns Of SNAP Scams

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the DHHR have received recent reports of card skimming, phishing, or cloning scams targeting the SNAP using Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card fraud and stolen benefits.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources is warning recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to stay vigilant against scams.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the DHHR have received recent reports of card skimming, phishing, or cloning scams targeting the SNAP using Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card fraud and stolen benefits.

Janie Cole, the DHHR’s Commissioner for the Bureau of Family Assistance, said SNAP benefit theft victimizes low-income individuals who rely on those benefits to care for their families.

“Card skimming can happen to anyone who uses a credit, debit, or EBT card, including SNAP participants,” Cole said. “SNAP benefit theft victimizes low-income individuals who rely on these benefits to feed their families, and it will not be tolerated.”

Theft of SNAP benefits is punishable by federal and state law and can include imprisonment and financial penalties. If a recipient of SNAP benefits is convicted of benefit theft, penalties may include being banned from participating in the SNAP program.

DHHR can replace stolen EBT benefits lost due to card skimming, cloning, or phishing, retroactively to October 1, 2022, and through September 30, 2024.

West Virginia residents who receive SNAP benefits and believe benefits have been stolen, should contact their local DHHR office or contact the DHHR Customer Service Center at 1-877-716-1212 to file a claim.

WIC Sign Ups Available At Fairs, Festivals This Summer

In an effort to take more information to the public, staff from the West Virginia Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, better known as West Virginia WIC, are heading out to fairs and festivals in local communities this summer.

It’s not always easy to know where to go and what to do when you are applying for government aid.

In an effort to take more information to the public, staff from the West Virginia Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, better known as West Virginia WIC, are heading out to fairs and festivals in local communities this summer. 

As part of an ongoing effort to modernize services and remove barriers to accessing WIC benefits, the West Virginia WIC program will utilize an online participant portal to accept applications.

“Fairs and festivals are an opportunity for WIC staff to meet families in the community while highlighting the support and public health services available through WIC clinics,” said Jamie Wilkinson, outreach coordinator for West Virginia WIC’s Office of Nutrition Services. “We look forward to seeing new faces as well as those who have been a part of the WIC program since their pregnancy and child’s birth.”

Local West Virginia WIC agencies will host children’s activities, diaper changing stations and mother’s lounge for infant feeding, and free farmers markets while enrolling eligible families at the following events. Dates listed indicate West Virginia WIC staff presence; some events extend for additional days. 

July:

Marshall County Fair (July 24-30)

Jackson County Jr. Fair (July 28-29) 

WV Hot Dog Festival (July 29)

August:

Tri-County Fair (August 3-5) 

Braxton County Fair (August 1-5)

Berkeley County Youth Fair (August 5-12) 

WV State Fair (August 10-19)

Town and Country Days (August 14-19) 

Parkersburg Homecoming (August 18-19)   

September:

Italian Heritage Festival (September 1-3)

Beckley Kids Classic Festival (September 9)

Preston County Buckwheat Festival (Sept 28-30)

Autumn Fest (Sept 30)

For more information about West Virginia WIC, visit dhhr.wv.gov/WIC. To view and apply for DHHR careers, visit dhhr.wv.gov/Pages/Career-Opportunities.aspx.

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