Food stamp changes could have big impact on Pa. families

Trump admin. wants more consistency in program

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Emma Lee / WHYY

Susann Schofield, 39, and her son Brice, 11, will be affected by the USDA's proposal to reduce SNAP benefits.

Emma Lee / WHYY

Susann Schofield, 39, and her son Brice, 11, will be affected by the USDA’s proposal to reduce SNAP benefits. (Emma Lee / WHYY)

• If a proposed change to the food stamp formula goes through, Susann Schofield’s food stamp allowance would go down $70 a month. “If they cut it, I don’t know what I would do,” said the Philadelphia mother.

• WHYY’s Emily Rizzo spoke to Schofield for a story that examines a Trump administration proposal that would cut $4.5 billion from the $68 billion budget of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In Pennsylvania,  Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration says the changes would affect about 775,000 households, and that people living in some communities would suffer more because the proposed formula ignores costs of living and utility rates that vary by region.

• Meanwhile, as Rizzo reports, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue says the Trump administration wants the program to operate more consistently across the country.

• Pennsylvania is one of 12 states that would be hit particularly-hard by the changes, an analysis by the Urban Institute found. Business Insider has more on the study.

• Back in October, Rizzo took a look at another subject that touches on issues of fairness, food and income: student lunch debt. This summer, the Pa. General Assembly approved legislation, allowing schools to offer alternative meals to students who owe more than $50 in lunch debt — a practice called “lunch shaming” by some.

• The Eastern York School District has about $12,000 in unpaid lunch bills, the district’s business manager said at a November meeting, LNP reports. “We do have some accounts that are getting excessive. There are about 15 accounts in each building that are problems,” Teresa Weaver told LNP.

• Meanwhile, The Morning Call’s Paul Muschick praised the Quakertown Community School Board for allowing administrators to ban students with lunch debt, overdue books or lost textbooks from participating in dances, graduation ceremonies or class trips. “At some point, we have to draw a line. Asking taxpayers to eat lunch debt is crossing that line,” he writes. “That’s not an educational expense. It’s a family expense. Children don’t have to buy lunch at school. They can pack.”

Best of the rest

To help get the word out about the #NewsMatch campaign and how donations to PA Post will be quadrupled, staffers here created this video about the First Amendment. My favorite line on rereading the amendment: people have the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

I love covering grievances, efforts to redress them and the debate around those efforts.

Sometimes that means people want the state’s permission to open a community college. Other times, people want to have confidence their votes will be counted — and they don’t want to wait more than an hour to cast a ballot. Or they want to get rid of school property taxes, reduce gun deaths, or prevent an industrial plant from sending pollution into the air and water.

I also love reading stories about redressing grievances. Here are some from this week:

• WITF’s Katie Meyer looks at a carveout in the new state law that raised the age to purchase tobacco. Active-duty service members or honorably discharged veterans who are 18 to 20 years old will still be allowed to buy tobacco in Pennsylvania. The American Lung Association said the exception “severely weakens” the measure.

• The Freedom From Religion Foundation wants an investigation into what it says was a violation of the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, PennLive’s John Beauge reports. The group claims coaches appeared to pray with high school football players before the team’s first two games. The district says the issue is resolved.

• In Bucks County, the Neshaminy School District is appealing a decision from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission that requires the district to no longer use logos and imagery that “negatively stereotype Native Americans,” WHYY’s Aaron Moselle reports.

Got a grievance you want redressed? Something else you’d like to see us recite on video? Drop us a line at the Listening Post.

P.S. And if you’d like to make a tax-deductible donation to PA Post, you can do so here. Thank you!