Group Seeks Funds To Offset Cuts In Food Programs State Anti-Hunger Activists Anticipate Longer Food Bank Lines As Result Of Reform Bill

Legislators can expect anti-hunger activists to push for more money next year to offset federal cuts in food programs.

The federal welfare-reform bill “could have been worse; some of the cuts were not as bad as we thought,” said Linda Stone, chairwoman of the State Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition. “Still, it is a blow; we can all grieve a little.”

About 80 people discussed the bill’s impacts at the coalition’s annual meeting Monday, with many predicting the federal cuts will increase food bank lines and hit children particularly hard.

The group’s 1997 “Legislative Agenda” doesn’t include a specific funding request. But the group said it will seek new or increased funding for food programs to form a state “safety net” for people in serious need.

“The question is not our resources, but what are we as people going to do to meet the child care, nutrition and other needs of our children?” Gov. Mike Lowry told the meeting.

The coalition includes members from church organizations, food banks and state and local agencies, and many agreed the welfare system needed change. But the concern was that the focus on getting people off welfare had overshadowed the bill’s potential harm to the hungry.

“AFDC (public assistance) wasn’t perfect; we as a state have to look at ways to improve the system,” said state Sen. Pat Thibaudeau, D-Seattle.

“But people on welfare haven’t exactly been socking away money in their IRAs,” she said. “Food is a basic need. Whether the state fills the gaps is going to be a major battle, and … it all depends on who’s there to fight it.”

State agencies are analyzing the effects of the welfare-reform bill. But because there will be no block grants for child nutrition programs or food stamps, experts estimate the average Washington household currently receiving food stamps will lose an average of $557 a year in 1998 and $650 in 2002.

That could put more pressure on other programs, including food banks.

About 45 percent of food bank recipients are children younger than 18, analysts say. Northwest Harvest serves an average of 500,000 people each month statewide, while Food Lifeline estimates it served 1.3 million individuals statewide from July 1, 1995, to April 30, 1996.

Summer lunch programs, which feed low-income kids when school is out, will also suffer, coalition members said.

Seattle’s summer lunch program serves 7,000 lunches a day in Seattle and at sites in Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and Woodinville, said Tim Mason of the city’s Department of Housing and Human Services.

The welfare bill’s cuts in reimbursement for food and transportation mean an estimated $80,000 deficit in the program, he said. “We’re wondering how to make that up,” Mason said.