{"id":913,"date":"2005-01-18T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-18T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/01\/18\/food_stamps\/"},"modified":"2005-01-18T14:20:00","modified_gmt":"2005-01-18T19:20:00","slug":"food_stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/01\/18\/food_stamps\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Stamps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laurie Thomas doesn’t like asking for handouts.<\/p>\n

But Thomas, a recent graduate of the Virginia School of Technology, has had trouble finding employment as a certified medical assistant. She has epilepsy and said employers have been unwilling to hire her. Her boyfriend has a good job as a plumber’s assistant, but his salary alone isn’t enough, she said. Unemployed and with a family to feed, Thomas decided last week to apply for food stamps. <\/p>\n

“I didn’t have a choice,” she said. “Right now, I’m just trying to figure out what bills need to be paid first and how I’m going to pay them.” <\/p>\n

Thomas is among an increasing number of Virginians who are turning to food stamps to get by. Statewide, nearly 486,000 people received food stamp benefits last year, a 41 percent increase since 2001. <\/p>\n

The picture was similar nationally, with nearly 24 million Americans on food stamps in 2004 – almost one-third more than four years ago. In South Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach saw the most dramatic increase. Last year, 16,781 residents received food stamps – a 45 percent jump from 2001. <\/p>\n

“We’re hoping that this trend is about to end,” said Earl Ford, an official with the city’s Human Services Department. <\/p>\n

Part of the spike can be attributed to welfare reform in the 1990s, which attached time limits to government assistance. Since then, officials have made a more diligent effort to enroll people who qualify for food stamps. <\/p>\n

Still, much of the increase was fueled by rising poverty rates, compounded by an abundance of low-wage jobs with few or no benefits. Often, low- to middle-class workers are finding second or third jobs to help pay for rent and food. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More of Susan White\u2019s story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laurie Thomas doesn’t like asking for handouts. But Thomas, a recent graduate of the Virginia School of Technology, has had trouble finding employment as a certified medical assistant. She has epilepsy and said employers have been unwilling to hire her. Her boyfriend has a good job as a plumber’s assistant, but his salary alone isn’t… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}