Food Stamps: A (not so) Love(ly) Story

This story is continued from a previous post entitled “Update About Food Stamps” from Oct. This post is a little lengthy but it has a happy ending. I wanted to share all of the details so as to accurately portray this experience. For more information about SNAP (food stamps) click here.

My second attempt to get food stamps started at the beginning of December. My VISTA leader said that enough time had elapsed since my first application that it would be okay. The worse part about the first application is that I never received any kind of notice. At least if I was denied, it would be more of a relief than not hearing anything. My VISTA leader suggested though that I take advantage of assistance programs with filling out the application for the sake of the paper trail to prevent a similar situation as before.

I called the local family resource center and made an appointment with the Benefit Bank, a program where a volunteer helps fill out an online application for food stamps. When I arrived the morning of my appointment, I had the completed application from before, along with a copy of my social security card and all of the paperwork I thought I would need. Then I had to fill out yet more paperwork for their records. [Side note: One thing I have noticed about potentially receiving social services is that I feel like my personal information is everywhere, like everyone and their dog has my my social security number. It is as if because I am receiving public services, that everyone somehow has the right to know all of my information. ] I gave them all of the paperwork, but yet I was missing some information. They were about to turn me away when I ensured them that I qualified because I had already been accepted but something had happened to my application, oh, and that I worked for the United Way. Then the volunteer that was going to assist me led me to her computer.

The volunteer was a sweet lady older than my parents. I come to find that she has a daughter my age. She slowly hen-and-pecks my information into the program and I resist the urge to ask to enter it myself. One hour later, we are finished and I thank her and head to work.

The Dept of Social Services (DSS) has 10 days to contact you after they receive your application. My new caseworker contacts me on Day 10. I was in the kitchen at work delivering food donations to our cook when I see our executive director running in. He hands me a piece of paper and say, “Call her. You have one minute.” Apparently, I was supposed to have been notified of an interview with my new caseworker and I was not. Instead, she called my work and said that I had what remained of my ten minute interview to answer her questions. I frantically called her back and was able to extend my one minute to seven by being polite and personable. She said that she would mail me the additional forms she needed.

A few weeks later, I still hadn’t received anything and she called me and said that it had been returned. She confirmed by address, which was incorrect. Somehow, “Grant” had become “Granite” and she did not have record of my apartment number though I had confirmed it at the Benefit Bank. She tried to accuse me of giving her the wrong information. I professionally gave her the correct information, though I was thinking, “I’ve been waiting for food stamps for almost 4 months. Why on earth would I give you the wrong information?!” She gave me a list of items that needed to be mailed to her but she “had to get them by tomorrow because she was taking time off.” I’m glad that I kept the necessary paperwork at work so I could drop them off at her office after work (copy cable, water, and electricity bill, lease agreement and pay stub with pay date). This would make at least the third time I sent DSS this information.

A week later I received two notices in the mail from DSS. One stated that I would receive my EBT card in a week and that my benefits were retroactive from the date of my application (Dec 7). The other letter dated two days earlier said that I had been denied due to lack of information. I’m glad that I opened them in the order that I did J. I assumed that the one most recently dated was correct (the first one). My EBT card arrived a week later. It is basically a debit card that has the amount loaded automatically. However, you have to tell the cashier that it’s ebt (I guess to alert those around you to your financial situation… At least I’m not ashamed. After all of this, I’m just super excited to finally be on food stamps).

And me and my EBT card lived happily ever after. The End.