Single Mothers, Emergency Food Assistance, and Food Stamps in the Welfare Reform Era

This article documents the characteristics, circumstances, and factors linked to concurrent use of food stamps among single-mother food pantry clients in Wisconsin in 1999. Most of these mothers use food pantries as an alternative, rather than a supplement, to food stamps, despite appearing to meet food stamp income criteria. Concurrent food stamp use is more common among mothers with weaker employment ties, more recent welfare involvement, and residence in a county that experienced smaller food stamp caseload declines in the welfare reform years. ********** Emergency feeding organizations are an integral part of the nutritional safety net. Indications of increasing demand on supplies of emergency food, coupled with the dramatic decline in food stamp and cash assistance caseloads, suggest that the relative importance of these organizations may be increasing. Unfortunately, our understanding of the role of the emergency food assistance network as a source of support for vulnerable families lags far behind our understanding of the role of the public support system. Furthermore, we have little information about the circumstances in which families use food pantries as a supplement or an alternative to food stamps and other public assistance programs. The growth in demand for emergency food and the corresponding decline in receipt of publicly provided assistance make these issues particularly compelling. The current study begins to address this gap by examining single mothers who used food pantries in Wisconsin during 1999. The focus is on single mothers because this is the group most dramatically affected by recent changes in the public assistance system, and at the same time, the group with the greatest difficulty in meeting their food-related needs (Andrews et al. 2000; Nord et al. 2002). This article addresses two key issues. First, the article documents the characteristics, circumstances, and connection to public assistance among the single-mother food pantry clientele. Second, the article examines the factors associated with concurrent food stamp receipt, thus contributing to understanding of food stamp participation among vulnerable populations in the welfare reform era. BACKGROUND AND PRIOR RESEARCH The federal welfare reform legislation of 1996 resulted in a fundamental restructuring of the public safety net. The legislation encompassed far-reaching changes affecting a diverse group of low-income families, but the implications for single-parent families were particularly profound. The former Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was replaced by the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The more stringent requirements of TANF including work requirements and time limits, contributed to a sharp decline in the number of families receiving assistance. In the wake of these policy changes, concern has been expressed over potential economic hardships among affected families, including hardships related to hunger and food insecurity. These concerns have been fueled by the convergence of 3 strands of research. First, the prevalence of food insecurity among single-parent families is high relative to other groups (Andrews et al. 2000; Nord et al. 2002). Second, the decline in cash assistance caseloads has been accompanied by a sharp decline in food stamp receipt, even among seemingly eligible families (see, e.g., Nord 2001). Finally, emerging evidence from around the country suggests that the welfare reform era--that is, the period since 1996--has been characterized by an increase in the demand for emergency food assistance (Food Security Institute 2000). The following sections provide a brief overview of the available evidence on food pantry and food stamp utilization, with emphasis on single-parent families. Single Parents and Food Pantries The decentralized nature of the emergency food network presents a considerable challenge to researchers, and only limited efforts have been made to track emergency food demand in a systematic and ongoing fashion. …