More people are using food pantries in Queens. An Incomplete Tale He also addressed problems with national standards for defining poverty and said they do not tell the whole story. The poverty level is defined by an income of $16,600 for a family of three, a number Weiner said cannot be used in both North Dakota and New York. He said the federal numbers that set the bar should reflect the cost of living in the region and create important distinctions of what it means to be “poor” in different areas of the country. Adjusting standards and making them flexible when dispersing funds is an important change, said Helen Allen, the food pantry case manager at the Glenridge Senior Center. Food Stamp eligibility does not use the poverty level bench mark, but still uses standards that are too rigid when assessing a family’s needs, she said. Eligibility requirements for household sizes from two to four range from $17,000 to $26,000, criteria that can prevent some families from accessing stamps. Allen said there is a single mother of five children who comes to the pantry and because she was $23 over the limit, she was denied Food Stamps. “There should be certain circumstances,” Allen said. “I had a senior who applied for food stamps and got $18…that’s sad, especially when you’ve worked all your life.” Not On The Same Plate But not everyone is convinced of the Coalition Against Hunger’s findings that there are more people struggling to survive in the City. Last spring, the Mayor’s Office announced a historic low in the number of public assistance caseloads. There were 402,281 welfare cases last year, the lowest number in 40 years, an indication, Bloomberg said, of people’s “self-sufficiency.” But at the same time, the City Council found that Food Stamp enrollment increased 13 percent in 2005. Jason Post of the Mayor’s Office said there is no contradiction between a drop in welfare caseloads and an increase in Food Stamps, because each serves a different purpose. While public assistance is designed to get people working, Food Stamps are a supplement for people with jobs. The rise in Food Stamp participation does not necessarily mean people are hungry, Post said. The Mayor announced last week “a task force to focus on food policy issues,” a committee that Post said would bring more nutritious foods to low-income neighborhoods and expand access to Food Stamps. It also draws a difference between hungry people, the result of lack of food, and malnourished people, the result of too much bad food. He also said that while he thinks the Coalition Against Hunger distorts how many people are truly “food insecure,” he won’t argue with the increase in demand at food pantries and soup kitchens. An Uneasy Future Back at the Glenridge Senior Center, people line up with their folding shopping carts and sit on benches as they wait to make the trek upstairs to the food pantry. Allen said 385 people have registered at the pantry in the past several years, and she has seen an increase in families with four or five children. Allen said the mothers who come are hesitant to ask for too much, particularly the mother with five children who was denied food stamps because she was $23 over the limit. “I want to give her everything, and she says, ‘No, I don’t need rice this week.’ Here is a person with five children, and I want to give her everything, and she only takes what she needs,” Allen said. Another mother who has an adult son with Down Syndrome told Allen she worries what will happen to him when she can no longer take care for him. She brings him to the pantry where he happily accepts what Allen gives him. “He’s got that big grin on his face,” she said. “And he says, ‘Wow, Mom, we’re gonna get cookies today.’”

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