SACRAMENTO — Hunger among immigrant families in two of California's largest counties has increased at an alarming rate since September 1997, when a federal welfare reform act mandated that noncitizens be cut from government food stamps, a study conducted by a nonprofit group for Los Angeles and San Francisco counties has found.
Even immigrant children, who have been protected from the cuts by a state program that continues to provide food stamps to the young and the elderly, have experienced high rates of hunger when adults in the family lost food assistance, according to the study scheduled for release today.
"To me, the most significant finding is that children are going hungry because their parents have been cut off from food stamps," said Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. "That's devastating."
The study, which presents the first assessment of the effect of food stamp cuts in California, provides clear evidence not only that hunger in the immigrant community has increased markedly, but that over time the hunger has become more severe.
Will Lightbourne, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Human Services, said the study confirms what many welfare directors predicted: that the state food stamp program would not be able to prevent immigrant children from experiencing hunger as long as other family members were losing food stamps.
"It bears out our worst fears," said Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles). "What's significant about this study is that the rate of children going hungry has just skyrocketed despite our program."
Using a research model designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the study surveyed 403 randomly selected immigrant households in Los Angeles in November 1997, then another 376 households in March 1998. Nearly all families selected for the survey had children, with the typical household being composed of a 41-year-old mother with three children.
In San Francisco, 241 households were surveyed in January 1998, with households evenly divided between those that had children and those that did not.
The first survey was conducted in Los Angeles two months after the cuts went into effect. It found that families were experiencing moderate to severe hunger in 40% of the households in which at least one member had lost food stamps. By March, the survey found that that number had risen to 50%, including about 69,000 children in immigrant families.
