PLATTSBURGH,
N.Y.,— The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP is a civil service
program available through Clinton County. The program
Colleen
Jennings works for the department of civil service. Jennings said there is a
list of criteria that people have to meet before they can even apply for
assistance.
Eligibility
is dependent upon house hold income, being elderly of disabled, receiving
Supplemental Security Income (SSI), receiving public assistance (TANF) or being
homeless. Owning a home or car doesn't prohibit assistance.
If you
meet the requirements the next step is filling out an application, this step is
extremely important because if you are given assistance it is computed from the
day you filed your application Jennings said.
Justine
Conti and her husband Marty have received SNAP assistance for just over a year.
The couple said that the decision to apply for assistance was a difficult
decision.
Justine
Conti said she didn't want people to think that she was just “taking advantage
of the system.”
She thinks
that some parents are afraid to ask for the assistance that they really need
because they are worried about how that could affect the way other people view
them.
“After I
had my second child we really struggled to put food on the table every night,”
Conti said. “It was embarrassing to apply, but I'll deal with a little
embarrassment if that means my kids can go to sleep without being hungry.”
Mark
Conti said that the hesitation to apply put the family in a tough position,
they wouldn't have enough money to last up to 30 days until they could receive
assistance.
“We
asked them if there was anything we could do to receive assistance sooner,” he
said. “When they explained the expedited snap to us and told us that we
qualified it was like a gift from heaven.”
Usually
it takes up to 30 days to receive assistance but if you qualify for expedited
SNAP you can receive SNAP within 5 business days. You do not need to be out of
food to apply for expedited SNAP.
According
to Jennings Conditions for eligibility include, a household with less than $100
cash and other available resources, Will get less than $150 in gross income
during the month that of application, if the household income and available
resources are less than the cost rent or mortgage, plus heat, utilities and
telephone or if the applicant is a migrant or seasonal farm worker.
SNAP is
trying to make receiving assistance more convenient for their clients through
the use of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. The card is very similar to
a regular debit card that you could have through your local bank. The new
system works is by provides the client with a card that is easy to use and much
more discreet, giving the user anonymity that wasn't possible with the old
system. Mary
Waters
has just started using the EBT card, she thinks that the card takes a lot of
the “shame” out of going to the grocery store for the who are on an assistance
program.
“There's always the people
that look at you like your just some scum looking for a free hand out,” she
said.
Water's
thinks that there a large portion of people who receive assistance and use it
for things like beer, cigarettes and other non-essential items. Waters said
that people who make those purchases with their assistance benefits give the
entire process a “bad name”.
“Now I
can just swipe my card and the only person that knows what I'm doing is the
cashier,” she said. “I only use my card for food that my family needs but still
it's nice not to be grouped with people like that.”
There
are a few requirements that come along with receiving assistance, if you
qualify for SNAP, you may require to see the New York Works councilors at
Clinton County Employment and Training Administration (CCETA). The CCETA
conducts interview of prospective clients and places them in a Job Readiness
program that requires the client to be present for a total of 21 hours a week.
The clients are also given 4 to 6 week window for training.
Alexandra
O'brien works with Job Readiness program. She said that during the orientation
clients are informed of the realities of present day job markets, expectations
and guidelines that are necessary to gain and retain employment.
“We talk
about child care and transportation and then it gets down to the real stuff,”
she said. “Like labor market, assistance with interview skills, assistance with
resumes, assistance with job application and dress code and conduct.”
O'brien said that it makes
her proud to see some of her clients years later and see how far they've come
and how much the assistance and the benefits that go along with it have changed
the lives of beneficiaries.
“At the
end of the day we could all use some help sometimes,” she said. “The important
part is realizing it's OK to ask for it.”
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