The Weekly Food Research and Action Center News Digest highlights what's new on hunger, nutrition and poverty issues at FRAC, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, around the network of national, state and local anti-poverty and anti-hunger organizations, and in the media. The Digest will alert you to trends, reports, news items and resources and, when available, link you directly to them.

Correction: Last week’s summary titled “South Carolina County Could See Over Half its Students Receiving Subsidized Meals” noted the wrong state. The summary headline should have read: West Virginia County Could See Over Half its Students Receiving Subsidized Meals (Charleston Daily Mail, January 22, 2009).

1. SNAP/Food Stamps Need Boost from Economic Recovery Bill
(CNN, February 2, 2009)

SNAP/Food Stamp "benefits aren't really enough for a healthy diet," FRAC President Jim Weill told CNN. FRAC and other advocacy groups, as well as SNAP/Food Stamp recipients, are looking to President Obama's economic stimulus plan to give a much-needed boost to the program. The recovery bill moving through Congress would give the average American family an additional $79 in SNAP/Food Stamp benefits each month, according to the New York Times. Joel Berg, executive director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger, said that current benefits are too small and difficult to obtain, but he is optimistic about the improvements that are included in the recovery bill. The program has provided help to D.C. resident Walter Thomas, who was laid off in July from his sales job in a furniture store. As the months went by, he was unable to find a job and his savings ran out. He started skipping meals in January because he couldn't afford to eat every day. At first, he was unwilling to take the help, but he did. SNAP/Food Stamps let him think "OK, well, tomorrow I'll be able to eat. If nothing else, I'll be able to eat." He said the program has been a blessing, and he's been able to continue job hunting without hunger pains.

2. House Economic Recovery Bill Would Have Most Noticeable Effect on SNAP/Food Stamp Families
(The New York Times, January 28, 2009)

While it’s hard to predict “how well the overall [economic stimulus] plan will work,” this news analysis states “it is easier to draw conclusions about its individual components, gauging them against the basic goal of any stimulus: to promote economic activity and create jobs as quickly and efficiently as possible.” A struggling family of four on SNAP/Food Stamps could receive an additional $79 a month on their EBT card in the House economic recovery bill, a benefit that would be immediately noticeable. The jobless who are at the end of the unemployment benefits will continue to receive checks, including an extra $25 each week, another immediate result of the legislation. These stimulus tools are “so beneficial” that they’re termed “automatic stabilizers” – “They are built into the system, allowing money to flow quickly to people who need it and are likely to spend it.” Financial assistance to state budgets struggling to maintain health care, schools, and public works will help keep the economic downturn from getting worse. If the recovery bill is signed by mid-February, SNAP/Food Stamp recipients would see the benefits in April, and will most likely spend the money by the end of the month.

3. House Speaker Pelosi Weighs in on SNAP/Food Stamp Portion of Economic Recovery Bill
(Washington Post, January 27, 2009)

On a conference call just before the House vote on the economic recovery package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted that SNAP/Food Stamps “have the most stimulative effect on the economy,” followed by unemployment insurance and infrastructure spending. “Actually, those investments bring a bigger return than the tax cuts,” she said.

4. Senator Says Nutrition Assistance Vital to Economic Recovery Bill
(Wisconsin Ag Connection, January 28, 2009)

Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) is working to make sure “major boosts” in federal nutrition programs and projects funding rural economic growth are part of the economic recovery package. “With people losing their jobs, it is essential substantial resources remain in place for struggling families throughout the country to put food on the table,” said the Senator, chair of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. He also noted that SNAP/Food Stamps are vital to economic stimulus, saying “Most economists agree that a food stamp increase, because of the way food stamps are distributed and spent, is one of the quickest way for government to put resources into economic circulation.”

5. Economic Recovery Package Necessary to Help Struggling Families
(Clanton Advertiser, January 26, 2009)

In this editorial, Chilton County state representative Jimmy Martin writes “Alabama could get more than $3.2 billion spread over more than two years from the stimulus package now moving through Congress,” money that’s “focused on direct assistance to families and the states.” With Alabama spending $11 billion a year on “critical services,” this help is desperately needed. “There are more folks receiving food assistance now than there were in the terrible recession in the early 1980s,” notes Martin. More than 35,000 additional families applied for food assistance in 2009, a 16 percent increase from the previous year; most of the families had never applied for SNAP/Food Stamps before. The state’s unemployment rate increased from 6.0 percent in November to 6.7 percent in December, the highest it’s been since 1993, although still below the 7.2 national rate. Neighboring states Florida and Georgia are at 8.1 percent and Tennessee is at 7.9 percent. “State officials and economic experts believe that Alabama is better situated than most to weather the storm,” Martin writes. “But tell that to a family who had to apply for food stamps for the first time.”

6. Ending Child Hunger Remains Part of Obama Plan
(Des Moines Register, January 25, 2009)

President Obama pledged to end childhood hunger in America by 2015, a goal that is still part of his Administration. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently mentioned the goal, saying the President “wants us to end child hunger in this country by 2015. That is a challenge we should take seriously.” He did not give a dollar amount that the Administration wants to spend, although he did say “we need to put more resources” into nutrition programs. However, the Administration will find it challenging to fund expanded nutrition programs as well as get Congress to enact the necessary changes. Shortly before the inauguration, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) wrote to the Obama transition team and asked for an unspecified increase in nutrition funding in the new president’s 2010 proposed budget – which will be “the first test of how serious Obama and Vilsack are about keeping the promise to end childhood hunger.” In 2007, USDA found that nearly 16 percent of households with children younger than 18 were “food insecure.” That rate was more than 30 percent for families headed by a single woman.

7. Economic Crisis and Outreach Boost SNAP/Food Stamp Applications, Participation

New Mexico
(Alamogordo Daily News, January 25, 2009)
SNAP/Food Stamp numbers in New Mexico rose to an “all-time high” in 2008 because of the troubled economy. December saw 6,000 new participants for a total of 268,400, a 15.3 percent increase over the previous year; $29 million in federal SNAP/Food Stamp funds went to New Mexicans that month. Now more than 13 percent of residents receive SNAP/Food Stamps; McKinley County, at 25 percent, has the highest participation, followed by 22.7 percent in Torrance County and 20 percent in Socorro County.

Colorado
(Coloradoan.com, January 27, 2009; Denver Post, January 26, 2009)
The number of SNAP/Food Stamp families rose along with the state’s unemployment rate in 2008, with 19 percent more individuals receiving the benefit at the end of 2008 than at the close of 2007. There are now 126,000 Colorado families on SNAP/Food Stamps, and an application surge has created a backlog. Seventeen percent of applicants wait longer than 30 days, and in Jefferson County, nearly half of all residents applying in December waited longer. Expedited applications for Jefferson County’s most needy grew in December to 934, 40 percent more than the previous year. Larimer County’s expedited applications increased 60 percent. Some say the state should have been better prepared. Ed Kahn, special counsel for the Colorado Center for Law and Poverty, which tracks application times statewide for SNAP/Food Stamps, is angry the state hasn’t figured out ways to expedite the process. “We’ve got a slow-moving man-made disaster here,” he said, “and it’s not going away for awhile.”

California
(San Mateo Daily Journal, January 27, 2009)
Outreach efforts in San Mateo County increased SNAP/Food Stamp participation by 28 percent according to a mid-year evaluation in 2008. An April 2008 program update had shown that the county was missing out on $11 million in federal SNAP/Food Stamp dollars; in May, California Food Policy Advocates ranked the county one of the lowest in the state for SNAP/Food Stamp participation, as more than half of eligible residents were not participating in the program. The Human Services Agency began a push to enroll residents last March, drawing up a five-year plan and working with the California Department of Social Services to determine ways to increase enrollment; incentives were offered to community partners to assist with the drive. Marketing was also done on grocery store receipts, Caltrain, buses, and in education seminars. Now, the program reaches about 70 percent of eligible people in the county.

Alabama
(Press-Register, January 25, 2009)
The number of Alabama families on SNAP/Food Stamps increased 16 percent in December over the number from the year before, with 36,300 more families receiving the benefit. Also in December 2008, the state distributed $2 million more in SNAP/Food Stamps that it did in November. During the economic slump in the early 1980s, the number of SNAP/Food Stamp households rose to its highest point – 230,000 households. “[W]e made that number in April of 2008,” said Mary Lois Monroe of the Department of Human Resources (DHR). Mobile County DHR Director Rose Johnson worked in various counties for 30 years, and said “there is more demand, and greater need for services, than I have seen in my career.” The Mobile office’s waiting room was packed recently with first-time and renewal applicants, keeping caseworkers busy with stacks of paperwork. The surge of new applications has come from the “working poor.” “It was difficult coming here,” said Ben Riddle, a youth pastor who holds a second job in a drugstore to support his family. “We never pictured ourselves having to apply for food stamps. But costs are rising. I got to the point my other job wasn’t covering it.”

North Dakota
(Grand Forks Herald, January 28, 2009)
In spite of a “strong state economy,” the number of SNAP/Food Stamp recipients climbed from 45,122 in 2007 to 48,412 in 2008, a sign that the state is “missing those folks at the bottom” according to a spokesman at the state Data Center. Single mother and college graduate Kim Stevenson, 33 has done “everything I can to make it on my own,” but has needed SNAP/Food Stamp benefits since 2003 for herself and her two children. “It helps out tremendously and allows me to provide healthier meals for my kids. Without food stamps, I never would have finished college because I would have had to get another job,” she said. Article available through site’s index.

8. Hawaii Bill Aims to Boost SNAP/Food Stamp Numbers
(Honolulu Weekly, January 21, 2009)

A bill in the state legislature sponsored by Sen. Gary Hooser (D-Kaua'i), leader of the Senate's Democratic Majority, drops the income asset test restriction, which prevents people with assets of more than $2,000 to $3,000 from receiving SNAP/Food Stamp assistance. Hawaii loses out on an estimated $67 million a year in SNAP/Food Stamp benefits due to these stricter-than-required eligibility requirements, according to Judy Lenthall, executive director of the Kaua'i Food Bank. The bill reflects a national trend to eliminate asset restrictions. "Giving people a hand up means you shouldn't strip them to zero and expect them to become upwardly mobile," Lenthall noted. Applicants will also find a shorter application form, and be able to interview for SNAP/Food Stamps over the phone, if the legislation is passed. The bill is just one piece of legislation in the Senate Majority Package, which focuses on social services, health care, education, and renewable energy.

9. Study Finds SNAP/Food Stamp Participation is Integral to Where Food is Purchased
(Newswise, January 27, 2009)

Researchers at Tufts University found that SNAP/Food Stamp recipients eat out less and spend more on groceries and less on prepared foods than non-recipients of the same low-income level. Monthly spending on “store-bought food” is $25 to $50 higher per person in SNAP households consisting of single adults and children, and monthly restaurant food spending is $8 to $15 lower per person in SNAP households. SNAP participants, by law, may not use the benefit to purchase restaurant or hot “ready-to-eat” foods. According to research, restaurant food, on average, has more nutrients that Americans tend to over-consume, and less of the nutrients they under-consume.

10. Report Shows Indiana’s SNAP/Food Stamp Applicants, Recipients not Well-Served by Privatized Benefit Program
(Indianapolis Star, January 26, 2009)

In this editorial, Fran Quigley, a staff attorney at Indiana Legal Services, focuses on a December 2008 USDA report showing that the state has the country’s ninth-worse rate for incorrectly denying SNAP/Food Stamp applications. For those applicants whose needs are termed dire and require expedited application approval, emergency benefits are delivered “in a timely manner” only 44 percent of the time in privatized counties, and only 62 percent of the time in the rest of the state. Governor Mitch Daniels approved, in December 2006, a 10-year, $1.16 billion contract with private companies to manage SNAP/Food Stamp, Medicaid, and other benefit program eligibility, and 59 counties are now using the automated system. While state officials point to “significantly” reduced error rates since the time period in the USDA report, welfare clients have filed lawsuits and legislators are working to slow the system’s rollout.

11. California and Oregon Hire Staff to Handle Skyrocketing SNAP/Food Stamp Applications
(Lompoc Record, January 27, 2009; Oregon Public Broadcasting, January 27, 2009)

In California, Santa Barbara County’s backlog of SNAP/Food Stamp and other benefit applications has resulted in noncompliance with the state and federal law that states applications must be processed within 30 to 45 days. Santa Barbara applicants, however, must wait 30 days in order to get an interview, prompting the Social Services Department to hire 11 new eligibility workers, four office staff, and approve overtime to get the applications processed. The hires and overtime approval come just two months after employees agreed to a mandatory furlough period in order to avoid layoffs. Employees are asking why there’s money now, but not when 16 eligibility workers were laid-off last year. According to Kathy Gallagher, director of the county Social Services Department, the state had announced a “mid-year augmentation” to SNAP/Food Stamp and other aid program workers to help reduce the wait times “in recognition of the increased work load we have.”

In Oregon, the nine percent unemployment rate increase prompted the state to use federal funds to hire new workers to help with the surge in SNAP/Food Stamp and unemployment compensation applications. In a recent week, 149,000 Oregonians received jobless benefits. Sixty new workers are being hired to process SNAP/Food Stamp applications. According to Craig Spivey of the Employment Department, the federal government began releasing funds to some states last summer as unemployment numbers began to rise. “[S]ince August, we’ve been able to add 145 staff to help with…processing claims and getting people their unemployment,” Spivey said.

12. Utah Pastors Urge Legislature to Keep SNAP/Food Stamp and Other Programs Strong
(Salt Lake Tribune, January 25, 2009)

Nearly 30 Utah pastors of various faiths gathered at a church on a recent Sunday for a news conference on needy community members. The pastors had also sent a letter to the state legislature; at issue were cuts the state plans to make in SNAP/Food Stamps, assistance to the disabled, Meals on Wheels, and affordable housing. The gathering was organized by the Coalition of Religious Communities. “I am concerned about cuts that seek to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable,” said Rev. Steve Klemz of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. As the recession puts more people in need, Rev. Klemz said the state should put more money into “human needs” programs. Coalition Director Linda Hilton suggested the state use its rainy day fund or bonding in order to keep from cutting these programs.

13. SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge Slated for Early March 2009
(Hartford Courant, January 28, 2009)

Foodshare, Hands on Hartford, End Hunger Connecticut and the Jewish Community Relations Council are sponsoring a SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge, titled “SNAP Into Action Against Hunger, starting March 3, 2009. For a month, participants will pledge to live on the average daily SNAP/Food Stamp allotment of $3, and will experience what it’s like to live on SNAP/Food Stamps.

14. Web Site Helps Seniors Access SNAP/Food Stamps and Other Benefits
(Orange County Register, January 21, 2009)

Senior citizens struggling with empty retirement accounts, health care, housing costs and in need of services, along with those responsible for parents who “want to spread their thin income as far as possible” can take advantage of the information on the National Council on Aging’s Web site BenefitsCheckUp.org, [http://benefitscheckup.org/] according to columnist Jane Glenn Haas. Since the site was launched in 2001, more than two million seniors and caregivers have accessed more than $6.8 billion in benefits. BenefitsCheckUp.org helps older Americans find benefits to help them with meals, heating bills, prescriptions, medical costs, and property tax relief. “The checklist offers a comprehensive screening of all the eligibility forms,” said Wendy Zenker, the Council on Aging’s vice president. “It’s possible to select what to apply for – from food stamps to home heating,” she noted. The site gives the user, after filling out an online form, a personal checklist of programs that might apply to the user. For SNAP/Food Stamps, the site contains information on benefits, eligibility standards, application information, state-specific hotline phone numbers, and Web resources and links.

15. College Students are Unaware They May Be Eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps
(Daily Barometer, January 30, 2009)

College students, including those in Oregon, may be eligible for SNAP/Food Stamps but are unaware they can take advantage of the assistance. Tough economic times have put more Oregon State University students “in a financial choke hold,” and the school’s MealBux program, which provides students with $250 each term to be used in the dining halls, has a limited budget. Out of 321 applicants for MealBux during the winter term, only 129 were approved. “[O]ne in six people in Oregon are on food stamps,” said Lauri Stewart, communications officer for the Children, Adults and Families Division. “But a lot of people in the state don’t know that they are eligible for food stamps.” This includes those college students shut out of the MealBux program. Stewart noted that many students think they’re not eligible because they’re students. “That’s just not true,” she said. “A lot of people who work full-time qualify for food stamps. Some even hold two jobs and still can’t make ends meet.”

16. Secretary Vilsack Keeps $3.18 Million to Encourage Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
(McClatchy Washington Bureau, January 27, 2009)

Money in a specialty crop block grant program which was slated for other uses in the last days of the Bush Administration will now be used for its original purpose - to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack agreed to keep the relatively modest $3.18 million in the program. Vilsack said he's sending a signal: "It's clear, from what President Obama has indicated to me, that he wants this department to promote nutrition through the use of healthy fruits and vegetables."

17. Demand May Force California to Cut School Lunch Budget
(San Francisco Chronicle, January 30, 2009)

In this editorial, Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, and Tom Torlakson, state senator for Contra Costa County, urge the state not to cut the budget for school meal programs as more and more children need free and reduced-price meals. Since the beginning of the school year, California schools experienced a 12 percent surge in free and reduced-price meal demand, on top of a surge which saw 4.5 percent more students receiving subsidized meals in 2008 than in 2007; 28 million more meals were served last year. A typical year usually sees a one percent difference. Because of the demand, the state is considering cutbacks in the school lunch program which will force school districts to “dip into their barebones budgets to make up the difference.” The state Department of Education announced before the holidays that the school meal program will run out of money by spring break, and the state will be unable to reimburse school districts on a per meal basis. The federal government reimburses the state for most of the meal ($2.17 to $2.57 for each free and reduced price meal), and the state provides fewer than 28 cents per meal (which includes the 6 cents added so that more fresh foods can be included.) O’Connell and Torlakson point out that for pennies a day, each child in the California school system is assured a balanced breakfast and/or lunch, which is vital since research shows proper nutrition helps children achieve better test scores, perform better in school, reduces behavior problems, and cuts absenteeism.

18. California School District Begins Lunch Payment Processing Through PayPal
(The Paypers, January 29, 2009)

Parents of students in the Palm Springs Unified School District will soon be able to pay for school lunch online via PayPal. PayPal allows for sending and receiving online payments using a bank account, credit card, or stored balance; it also allows for electronic fund transfer and can provide billing services. Also considering using PayPal are libraries and Associated Student Body groups.

19. Free and Reduced-Price Breakfast Goes to Less than Half of Students in One Maryland County
(The Gazette, January 21, 2009)

According to a report by Maryland Hunger Solutions, only 42 percent of low-income students in the Montgomery County, Md., school system took advantage of free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch – with 26,536 students eligible but only 11,166 participating. The county ranked 19th out of the state’s 24 school systems. Somerset County ranked first, having 71 percent low-income student participation, although it has far fewer students eligible. Howard County ranked last, with 20 percent, or 961 students out of 4,710 eligible, receiving subsidized meals. Across the state, 44 percent of eligible students took advantage of free and reduced-price breakfast, slightly below the national average. Breakfast is key to student success in school. “If children have breakfast in the morning, they have better attendance and less visits to the school nurse,” said Kimberley Chin, director of Maryland Hunger Solutions.

20. Extending Breakfast Time Ups Participation in Montana Schools
(Helena Independent Record, January 23, 2009)

Extending breakfast from 7:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon at Capital High School in Montana has increased participation dramatically – 300 breakfasts are now served daily in the school. A pilot program in the Helena School District aims to increase participation, especially among low-income students who receive free or reduced-price meals, by serving breakfast after the school bell rings. Teachers at one school noticed many students in lower grades were particularly hungry by snack time, prompting Robert Worthy, a Sodexo employee who oversees the Helena district’s food service program, to start the pilot project. If schools across the state were able to increase participation to 60 low-income children receiving free and reduced-price breakfast for every 100 receiving subsidized lunch, the state would assure that an additional 7,228 low-income students would receive the morning meal and bring in $1.5 million in federal funding, according to FRAC’s school breakfast report. FRAC’s president, Jim Weill, said school breakfast improves students’ academic performance, reduces behavior problems, and helps eliminate obesity. “The bottom line is to get more schools, districts and states to serve more breakfast to students because it’s good for students and schools,” said Weill. Breakfast is particularly important now, as families struggle during the recession; a Census Bureau report found only 35 percent of parents of children 6 to 11 years old, and only 22 percent of parents with middle to high school age children, report eating breakfast with their children each morning.

21. Minnesota Ranks High In FRAC’s Breakfast Report
(KSTP, January 26, 2009)

In FRAC’s study of urban school breakfast participation, Minneapolis, Minn., ranked second among urban areas studied, with 69.6 percent of eligible low-income students receiving school breakfast in the 2006-2007 school year. The city’s participation rate rose 10 percent from the previous year; Minneapolis offers free breakfast to all students and serves breakfast in the classroom. The top three urban school districts in the study – Newark, Minneapolis, and Boston – all provide in-classroom breakfast free of charge to all students in many or all schools.

22. Controversial “Cheese Sandwich” Lunch Program May be Revised
(KOB.com, January 30, 2009)

Albuquerque students whose parents owe lunch money for their children who bought meals at school on credit have been receiving cheese sandwiches instead of hot meals, a controversial move that may soon be changed. The Albuquerque board of education, which instituted the program in order to cover $140,000 in debt is considering changing their tactic. Program opponents say replacing a child’s hot lunch with a cold cheese sandwich is demeaning and humiliating for the student, and some question the alternate meal’s nutritional value.

23. School Board Says School Food Initiative Ad Sent Wrong Message
(Boulder County Daily Camera, January 29, 2009)

A full-page newspaper ad by the Boulder Valley School District promoting the school district’s school food initiative insulted cafeteria workers, and school officials have issued an apology. The ad pictured a girl and the words “What if her school cafeteria cared as much about her food as you do?” The ad’s goal was to rally support for the initiative, but a spokesperson for the cafeteria staff said they were “aghast at the promotion’s insinuation that the cafeteria staff doesn’t care about the students.” Boulder Valley’s chief financial officer, Leslie Stafford, wrote an apology stating she regrets “any misunderstanding that occurred as a result of the advertisements,” and assured food service workers that they will be key in the district’s future school food program. The district is revamping the food it serves students, and hired a consultant to eliminate processed food, institute more “scratch” cooking, and purchase more local foods; fundraising and donations are paying for the initiative along with a commitment from Whole Foods for at least $100,000. One cafeteria worker said of the ad “Who would have thought that in Boulder County, the capital of political correctness, that I would open the paper and see myself humiliated?”

24. Plan to Shorten School Week Could Rob Many Students of their School Meals
(MSNBC, January 27, 2009)

Senators in Yakima Valley, Washington are considering cutting the school week back one day in order to cut costs, but some are questioning the wisdom of such a tactic. Yakima School District Superintendent Ben Soria’s bottom line on the bill moving through the legislature is its effect on students. “[I]f it doesn’t affect kids in a positive way and doesn’t improve learning then I would question it,” he said. He also noted that if a child is absent on one of those four days, he loses 20 percent more instruction time. Another red flag is the issue of school meals. For many students, the meals they receive at school “may be the only real nutritional meals” they get on those days, said Soria.

25. New York State Implements WIC Food Changes
(Journal News, January 26, 2009)

New York is the first state to implement the new WIC food package, giving vouchers to pregnant women and new mothers for an expanded list of grocery items including fresh fruits and vegetables, whole-grain cereals, brown rice, tofu, canned beans and some types of baby food. The state has 500,000 WIC participants, which includes children up to age five, and WIC centers in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam have reported increased applications due to the recession and the high cost of food. WIC also provides nutrition counseling along with instruction on the new food package. “The reaction has been positive once it’s explained to them,” said Pat McAlpin, director of patient services at the Rockland Department of Health. “It is a pretty big change.”

26. Study Finds More Food Insecurity in U.S. than in Canada
(Economic Research Service Report Summary, December 2008)

An analysis of the extent to which the U.S. and Canada are meeting their stated objectives to improve domestic food security - access to adequate food for an active, healthy life – found food insecurity less prevalent in Canada than the U.S. Canadians are less likely to live in food-insecure households (7.0 percent of population) than U.S. residents (12.6 percent). The difference was greater for children than for adults. While further research is called for, patterns “suggest that differences in tax/tax credit arrangements and the provision of in-kind benefits (such as food and nutrition assistance, health care, housing assistance and energy assistance) may play important roles.”

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