Food stamps filling more pantries

As the economy continues to put people out of work, twisting lives in unforeseen and unimaginable directions, many more people have taken the dire step of asking for help with feeding their families.

In the past year, hundreds of thousands of additional people in the Carolinas have joined the federal government's food assistance program. The number of households in South Carolina that depend on food stamps has increased 50 percent over the last two years. North Carolina has seen a similar increase. In January, nearly 800,000 people in South Carolina - more than 1 in 6 - benefited from the assistance. The percentage grows at the local level. Nearly 1 in 5 Horry County residents were enrolled in the program in January.

This deep shift in the food economy has had a number of logistical, extremely personal and even embarrassing consequences. People unaccustomed to asking for help have had to bare their family's deep financial crises before strangers, navigating the sometimes complex world of social service offices and food pantries for the first time.

David Lipford and his two young daughters are among those recently added to the rolls.

Five years ago, Lipford owned roofing and concrete businesses that employed 19 people. He paid himself a $160,000 annual salary. Several weeks ago, after more than a year without steady work, the N.C. resident put pride aside and walked into the Zebulon office of Wake County Human Services.

Lipford and his wife are separated. The only steady money coming in was $62 a week in child support.

That kind of income produces a series of tough choices. The electric company wants to be paid. The Internet company wants to be paid. So do the people who supply Lipford's propane, which he uses to heat the house.

"If you get $10, what do you do with the money?" Lipford said. "You end up with choices, choices I never thought that I would ever have to make."

Food stamps mean that he won't have to worry about feeding his girls. Lipford receives a $526 monthly benefit.

County governments are tasked in North Carolina with administering the federally funded food-stamp program, and many were stretched thin before the recession. New food stamp cases have dropped on them a crushing amount of work.

At Wake County's main social service office in Raleigh, struggling families can receive help in a number of ways, including food stamps.

Some mornings, more than 100 people are waiting in line for the doors to open at 7:30 a.m.

From paper to plastic

Technically, they aren't called food stamps anymore. The old paper coupons have been replaced by Electronic Benefit Transfer cards. In South Carolina, it's called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In North Carolina, it's Food and Nutrition Services.

It is not easy to qualify. Most households cannot have more than $2,000 in what the government calls "countable resources," such as money in a bank account. A home and its lot do not count. Neither do most retirement plans. A complex set of rules applies to vehicles.

A family of four can make no more than $2,389 in gross income per month and still receive food stamps. Families must provide proof of their income and expenses, and those who qualify must have their cases periodically reviewed to ensure they are still eligible.

The food assistance benefits are offered on a sliding scale. Lipford, for instance, receives the maximum amount that a family of three can receive. Many families who qualify receive less.

The most important purpose of food stamps is to put food on people's tables. But the money distributed on EBT cards also provides an economic boost to struggling communities. In January, more than $102 million was distributed across South Carolina, with Horry County receiving about $6.5 million. A year earlier, the statewide number was $73 million, with $4.5 million coming into Horry County.

The increase in need has had tangible consequences for the county offices that handle food stamp applications. Caseworkers are overburdened, working for recession-hit counties who can't afford to add new workers.

In Wake County, N.C., the average Food and Nutrition Services caseworker handles about 950 households, said Sharon Gardei, the county's program manager for food and nutrition services. That's up about 200 cases per worker.

In 2009, 23 percent of the applications received in Durham County were from households who had never before applied for food assistance.

Time to get help

The breaking point for each family is different. Lipford made his trip to social services for help when his propane supply dipped to only a day or two, and his electricity was within 10 days of being disconnected.

His home in northeastern Wake County has been on the market for two years. In that time, Lipford estimates five people have come to look at the property, which includes nearly 10 acres.

He hasn't made a mortgage payment in two years. The bank has threatened foreclosure. Lipford's dream of a big boat and a house at the beach have evaporated, replaced with the hope of selling the only home his girls have ever really known. He's asking $400,000.

Lipford already has borrowed all the money he can from family and friends.

"I have drained the well dry," he said.

Beverly and Gary Johnson of Raleigh are facing a similar situation. If not for a family member who provided a last-minute loan that saved their house, they could have lost it to foreclosure.

The couple, who have lived in their home off Edwards Mill Road for almost 25 years, buy groceries with the $480 or so they receive each month on an electronic benefits card. That covers their household, which includes a grown son.

Gary, a real estate agent, sold only one house in 2009. Work for Beverly, a photographer, has been difficult to come by.

Their middle class existence has slipped slowly away, a feeling punctuated that day about two years ago when she went to Wake County Human Services to apply for food assistance.

"I didn't want to be there," she said, "but I needed the help."

Gary has found part-time work, and Beverly is looking, too. In the meantime, the Johnsons make ends meet with food stamps.

Beverly handles the family's grocery shopping, pairing coupons with the store's weekly specials to stock the fridge and freezer. She concentrates on staples and stays away from high-dollar items. "I can count on one hand the number of times I've bought steak in the last two years," she said.

Scraping money together to pay bills, and dealing with a bank that wanted to foreclose, has given Beverly a new perspective on the folks who stand on the side of the road with cardboard signs asking for help. The experiences leave her wondering if she one day might join them.

"Every day, when I see those people, I think: How many days do I have left?"