Food stamps lend helping hand to students
The program helps stabilize students' precarious money
situations with the extra monthly income it provides
BY JARED PABEN
NEWS EDITOR
University student Spencer
Finnan makes two “fairly big” trips
to the grocery store each month,
buying enough food to last him
about two weeks. Sometimes he
makes more trips, but he’s always
sure to spend a full $150 per month,
he said.
Finnan, a senior who will leave
the University this term with a mu
sic degree, pays with food stamps.
And he’s paid at the register with a
swipe of his plastic Oregon TYail
card since January.
His only regret: He wishes he had
signed up for food stamps earlier.
“I didn’t realize how much mon
ey it would help me save,” Finnan
said. “I just kind of wished I would
have realized it sooner ... That’s
$150 I used every month. That’s
good because I was coming up a lit
tle short each month on my bills.”
Finnan is one of the approximate
ly 1,550 college students in Lane
County and 7,715 college students
in the state who are currently using
food stamps to help make ends
meet, according to the Oregon De
partment of Human Services.
Those people join the approxi
mately 200,000 students, or about
1.1 percent of total benefit recipi
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ents, who got food stamps in the na
tion in 2002, according to a United
States Department of Agriculture
Food and Nutrition Service report.
About 63,000 of those students
were heads of their households.
About 158,000 participating house
holds had both a student and child
or children present.
Carolyn Ross, food stamp pro
gram manager for DHS, said that
only 2 to 3 percent of those who get
food stamps in Oregon are students,
but the number has increased a per
centage point over the last year.
Ross said she has two theories for
the increase: Some universities are
now dividing the costs of housing
and food for students interested in
moving into dormitories, prompting
many students to only pay for the
housing and get on food stamps to
cover the costs of food; and the in
creasing cost of attending college is
prompting students to get on food
stamps to help cover living costs.
“That’s just our wild guess. We
just think it’s the rising costs
of tuition, so you just don’t have the
extra money for food,” said Ross,
who graduated from the University
in 1982 with sociology and business
degrees.
Ross said food stamps help
students stretch their income given
the high cost of tuition, fees
and textbooks.
Adam Petkun, former chairman
of the Oregon Student Association
and former ASUO president, said
he doesn’t find the trend of
more students getting on food
stamps surprising given increasing
college costs.
“It underscores the need to ad
dress the cost of education in the
state,” Petkun said. “This is what
h annnnc whon
the state balances
books on the
back of students.
It was only
bound to start af
fecting students’
bottom lines.
The
OSA
works with the Student Childcare
Program, which helps support stu
dents with children. The waiting list
for that program is growing and
there are hundreds of students who
would like to get those benefits,
Petkun said.
“I think there is a problem that so
many students whose futures are so
bright have to rely on social services
to get by,” Petkun said.
Nancy Weed — food stamp out
reach coordinator for the Oregon
Hunger Relief Task Force, an adviso
ry body with members appointed by
the governor that works with DHS
— said food stamps were crucial to
her when she was working and
making less than $200 per month,
all while studying as a graduate stu
dent at Portland State University.
“It just makes such an incredible
difference in the world,” Weed said.
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“I kind of think I wouldn’t (have
made) it through the program with
out help like that.”
Weed said food stamps allowed
her to make it through the expenses
of college with children. She is
adamant about helping students get
on food stamps partly because food
stamps helped her get through
school on her way to a master’s de
gree in social work in 1999.
More students using food stamps
is actually a good thing, Weed said,
because it shows they’re using a
service that is available to many
of them. Also, using food stamps
brings federal dollars into the local
community and supports the
local economy.
But Weed said students don’t uti
lize the program enough because
they often think they can’t get food
stamps because they’re students.
Some DHS caseworkers don’t even
know that students can get on the
program, she said.
“(Students) don’t know they’re
eligible,” Weed said. “It sounds
obvious, but it’s true.”
Weed said students can make up
to $1,435 per month and still qualify
for food stamps.
“People are often really surprised
to find out how much you can make
a month and still get food stamps,”
she said.
Students are generally eligible to
receive food stamps if they qualify
for a state or federally funded work
study program, work at least 20
hours per week, have a child under
the age of 12 or are taking employ
er-sponsored job training classes.
Weed said the task force and DHS
haven’t done a massive outreach ef
forts on college campuses and food
stamps branches are often over
“We’re all poor and
anything to give us a leg up
is very much appreciated. ”
Eric Wise | Senior
derstaffed and
don’t have the
resources to
do outreach.
Ross agreed
that she’s
never seen
outreach done
at universities. In fact, her nephew,
who will be graduating from the
University after this term, could
potentially get them but is not,
she said.
Weed wrote in an e-mail that the
Hillsboro food stamp office in
Washington County does engage in
direct outreach to students at Pacific
University by providing information
and a sign-up booth twice per year
during enrollment times.
Petkun said it’s difficult to priori
tize an advertising campaign aimed
at informing students about food
stamps over the costs of the pro
gram itself, especially during bad
economic times. However, he said
he knows students who hear second
hand about food stamps from stu
dents who are already on them.
University senior Eric Wise, who
was on food stamps for about six
months during his junior year, is
one of them. Wise applied for food
stamps after his roommate started
using them. He said he used to
think that food stamps were only for
people on welfare with eight chil
dren, but once he got on them, he
found the support helpful.
“We’re all poor and anything to
give us a leg up is very much appre
ciated,” Wise said. “I’ve worked
jobs since I was young, and when
I’m in school there’s only so much
money that I’m able to earn from
my job, and having that support is
nice, and I know that eventually
when I get out I’m going to be mak
ing money and putting money back
into the system that fed me when I
was in college.”
jaredpaben@dailyemerald.com