MARTINSBURG, W. Va. — Every day, in grocery store checkout lines across the country, thousands of Americans bear witness to their own misfortune in a public ritual that underscores both the pervasiveness of poverty and the fragility of the economic recovery. Debbie Nester is one of them.
Seven months ago, Nester's husband was making $12 an hour as a plumber in rural West Virginia. Then he hurt his back and could no longer work. Although he possessed a high school diploma, he had never learned to read and was unable to find a new job. So Nester, the mother of two young children, reluctantly applied for food stamps for her family.
"I don't want to depend on the government, but I need it for my kids," said Nester, 32. "But I do not want it to become permanent."
A record 27 million people--roughly 1 in 10 Americans--receive food stamps or live with someone who does. The 33-year-old program has grown steadily and continues to expand despite an economic recovery that officially began two years ago. It ranks as the second-biggest public assistance program, behind Medicaid.
For some critics, the program epitomizes the extent to which Americans have become dependent on government to meet their basic needs. Yet even if many taxpayers grumble when they see someone buy chips and soda with food stamps, surveys show that the program is generally perceived as essential and effective.
At a time when some federal assistance programs are shrinking, President Clinton has proposed a significant expansion of the food stamp program: more than $7 billion in new funding over four years.
Even more telling, Clinton is expected to exempt food stamps from proposed welfare reforms that could place a two-year limit on many government benefits for the poor.
Food stamps even draw praise from Republican lawmakers, who view them as fundamentally different from programs such as Aid to Families With Dependent Children, Medicaid and public housing.
"I don't believe reasons for supporting the food stamp program break along party lines," said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who has been a powerful force behind the program since the 1960s. "There is now a tradition of bipartisan support for it."
Experts say the program's success reflects the fact that Americans are offended by the concept of hunger at home--in the world's richest and most powerful nation--and are willing to support a carefully targeted program that helps put food on the table of those who need it.
