Republican state treasurer says food stamp work requirement makes sense [View all]

Gov.-Elect John Bel Edwards is thinking about waiving the requirement that able-bodied adults without dependents get a job, receive job training or perform public service as a condition of receiving food stamps. To waive this requirement would be a mistake. Here’s why.

In 1961, Alderson Muncy was in dire circumstances. A drop in the nation’s demand for coal had cost Muncy his job at a West Virginia mine. He lived in the poorest part of a poor state and had a wife and 13 children to feed.

The poverty in West Virginia touched the hearts of people across America. Muncy and his wife, Chloe, became the first recipients in the U.S. of food stamps. Handed $95 in food stamps, they used just $20 worth. Months later, they started chipping in for the cost of the food stamps after Alderson Muncy got a temporary job. Within six years they were off food stamps altogether after Alderson Muncy found work with the state highway department.

The Muncy family exemplified the founding goal of the food stamp program. The program was never meant to produce a population that is dependent on government assistance. Food stamps are supposed to be temporary, short-term assistance: a bridge, not a parking lot.

Read more: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/opinion/2016/01/02/kennedy-food-stamp-work-requirement-makes-sense/78140828/