WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tom Udall today announced that the state of New Mexico is among three states that have been awarded more than $1 million each to expand nutrition assistance to low-income seniors.
The grants, which total $3.1 million, were awarded to New Mexico, Washington and Pennsylvania by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and will fund pilot projects to increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation among Medicare's Extra Help population. Extra Help, also known as the Low Income Subsidy, helps low-income individuals or couples with limited resources pay for their Medicare prescriptions.
New Mexico will use its $1 million to conduct a pilot that will deem certain eligibility factors, create a simplified application, standardize the medical deduction, and target only those households that contain individuals or couples with no earned income. The state will have two standard benefits based on high and low shelter costs.
"With our economy continuing to struggle, access to nutritious food can be an even greater challenge for low-income seniors," Udall said. "This grant will allow New Mexico to expand its nutrition assistance so that our seniors don't have to make the choice between buying nutritious food and keeping a roof over their heads."
In the United States, one in seven Americans is living in poverty, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau today. The national poverty rate increased to 14.3 percent in 2009, up from 13.2 percent a year earlier, the report found.
While the SNAP participation rate among all eligible persons was 67 percent in 2008, the participation rate is less than one third (32 percent) among eligible elderly. Research shows multiple reasons why eligible people, including seniors, do not participate in SNAP. These include stigma; unawareness of eligibility, program rules and requirements; and lack of transportation.
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) will provide Federal oversight and evaluation of the pilots. FNS oversees the administration of 15 nutrition assistance programs. These programs serve one in four Americans over the course of a year and work in concert to form a national safety net against hunger. SNAP, the largest of these programs, helps nearly 41.3 million Americans each month put healthy food on the table.
