PHILADELPHIA--  A report by University of Pennsylvania researcher Mary Summers highlights critical enrollment barriers for those eligible for food stamp benefits and offers strategies to improve screening of food stamp clients.  

Summers, a senior fellow at Penn's Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, helped to develop the model for the Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger's food stamp enrollment campaign while teaching an academically based service seminar at Penn in the fall of 2002 called "The Politics of Food."  She served as principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that initially funded the Campaign.

Students from Penn and 13 other area colleges and universities work in the campaign to screen clients for federal food stamp assistance.  The Hunger Coalition launched the Campaign in 2003 in a joint partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Penn's Fox Leadership Program and the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development.

According to Summers' report, "Making Food Stamps Work: A Report on the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger's Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign 2003-20006," students have screened 12,000 clients for eligibility for food stamps, giving those eligible an estimate of their potential benefits and helping them apply for assistance.

The bad news is that applying for food stamps is difficult, with campaign volunteers needing at least three hours of intense training to help clients," Summers said.  "Students and community volunteers with less time participated in other ways, like handing out the Campaigns hot line number or participating in grocery store fairs.  The good news is that this is a great program for service learning and work-study students who can devote more time to it."

Summers found that only 53 percent of eligible clients are successful in applying for the program and only 40 percent successfully enroll.  She said that significant barriers, like having to collect as many as 11 documents and enduring long waits at the county assistance office keep people from applying.

Summers estimates that in its first 18 months the Campaign resulted in more than $3.2 million a year in benefits for low-income Philadelphians and more than $5.9 million in increased business in the local economy.  She also stressed that the Coalition is using campaign data to work with the Pennsylvania Public Welfare Department to address some of the barriers to food stamps. There is now a food stamp liaison in each of the 17 Philadelphia County assistance offices to help with food stamp related problems.  Since June 2005, Philadelphia residents have been able to request information and ask about the status of an application over the phone at call-in Change Centers.  Since May 2006, low-wage workers, the elderly and the disabled have been able to request phone interviews to complete the food stamp application process rather than apply for food stamps in person at a county assistance office.  

"This campaign is an outstanding example of service linked to citizenship," Fox Leadership Program Faculty Director John DiIulio said. "Coalition volunteers are working to improve access to one of the nations most important safety-net programs."

With support from the William Penn Foundation, the Campaign has expanded to support a Building Bridges Program, with the goal of making visits to West Philadelphia county assistance offices to apply for food stamps less burdensome for both clients and staff.