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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 25 > Entry
Guest column: Nutrition program not beset by raging fraud
This commentary was written by Tina Osso, of Hamilton, executive director of Shared Harvest Food Bank.
At a time when more than 1.8 million Ohioans are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, we cannot let our attention be transfixed by stories such as the one that appeared June 21 (“Is Ohio replacing food stamp cards being sold or traded for drugs?”).
Let’s focus on the fact that this program is meant to supplement an individual’s and family’s basic need for food when they have nowhere else to turn.
It is easy to use unknown “authorities” who believe that fraud and abuse are rampant in SNAP (formerly the food stamp program), and use quantifiers like “some” or “many.”
What is more difficult is to get real numbers. According to the GAO: The national payment error rate reported for SNAP has declined by 56 percent from 1999 to 2009, from 9.86 percent to a record low of 4.36 percent.
The government’s Food and Nutrition Service estimates indicate that the national rate of food stamp trafficking declined from about 3.8 cents per dollar of benefits redeemed in 1993 to about one cent per dollar during the years 2002 to 2005.
But let’s not let facts get in the way of appealing to our baser instincts.
After all, the three stories used to illustrate the reporter’s exaggerated point are all criminals, leading the reader to believe that all program participants must be of the same ilk.
What about the stories of real people who have lost nearly everything in the Great Recession and swallowed their pride to ask for help, only to be vilified in the press and by politicians who have no clue what it is like to be poor?
For millions of Ohioans, SNAP puts food on the table when jobs are scarce, wages are stagnant and unemployment benefits have been exhausted.
SNAP is now helping one out of every six Ohioans, making wholesome foods available for millions of our neighbors who might otherwise go without.
Instead of knocking a federal program that has shown success in reducing fraud and abuse, why not focus on the billions of dollars wasted in other areas of government?
Gosh, defense contractors come to mind.
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