The Michigan Daily-Friday, December 8, 1978-F 7

STAMP RECIPIENTS COMPLAIN:

Food aid rules altered

By PAULA LASHINSKY
A change in the current food stamp
program will no longer require aid
recipients in Michigan and across the
country to pay cash when obtaining
their stamps.
Meanwhile, some officials and
recipients in Waslttenaw County have
expressed reservations about the new
system. They say that many of the
proposed social benefits are unclear.
UNDER THE present system each
individual household pays a certain
amount of money for which it receives a
fixed amount of food stamps plus a
number of free or "bonus" stamps. The
value of bonus stamps each household
gets is based on household size and in-
come.
The new program, effective January
1,1979, eliminates all cash transactions.
Under the new system, individuals
will receive only that amount which
was formerly considered to be the
bonus.
MANY STAMP users say that they
don't want the added responsibility.
They would prefer to continue buying
stamps each month.
"When I buy stamps I know that my
kids and I will have enough to eat. With
the new program, the amount I receive
will decrease and moneywise, I won't
be any further ahead," said recipient
Mary Weeks.
"I am worried about spending money
on other things and then not having

enough money for food. It is going to be
harder to budget," said foot stamp user
Kathy Smith.
ACCORDING TO Lee Hall, director
of the Office of Food Programs for the
Michigan Department of Social Ser-
vices, this change, a result of the Food
Stamp Act of 1977, was designed to
make it easier for people who have not
participated in the Food Stamp
Program to participate.
The change will also categorically
eliminate some participants. Eligibility
is determined on the basis of income.
Food stamp recipients who will no
longer be purchasing stamps will have
the stamp money added to their in-
come. Households, such as those
receiving Aid to Families with Depen-
dent Children (ADC) may find that
their incomes will exceed the cutoff
level.
"Those people whose earnings are
above the poverty level will no longer
be eligible. We expect 12 to 15 per cent
of those now involved in the program to
lose their eligibility," Hall said.
CAROL FISHER, Food Stamp
Outreach Program assistant for
Washtenaw County, said she sees little
merit in the change and calls it
"basically a bureaucratic move."
"We as Americans don't know how to
cook, buy and store. We don't
economize. We are giving individuals
the added responsibility to adequately
budget their funds," Fisher said.
Fisher added that the Social Service

Department expects many emergen-
cies when individuals find that by mid-
month they are short of funds.
ONE OF THE weaknesses that
Fisher said she sees in the change is
that it may actually deceive people.
"I have been saying all along that this
is a joke. People are being fooled. When
there are no cash transactions, it ap-
pears that you are getting something
for free," Fisher said.
A number of food stamp users said
they favor the new system. They said
they are very pleased with the fact that
it will be a lot easier to obtain stamps.
fn fact, most people interviewed were
more concerned with the problem of
facing rising food prices.
"I really don't see where this is
relevant to me, when prices are sky
high.-I think the whole system needs to
be readjusted and quick," said
recipient Marietta Baylis.


COSTA GAVRAS

1965

SLEEPING CAR MURDER
The rapid pacing, the roving eye, the infallible sense of detail bears the stamp
of the virtuoso director, Costa Gavras. From the opening scene where a
cramped sleeping car provides the cinematic frame for the victims, to d
night chase scene through the streets of Paris, this first feature for political
filmmaker Costa Gavras, carries an intensity equal to the pursuit of killers
and police. With SIMONE SIGNORET, YVES MONTAND and JEAN-LOUIS
TRINTI GNANT.
Sat: THE AFRICAN QUEEN

Daily Photo by WAYNE CABLE
Play misty for me
ven the Daedalus in front of the Art Museum was obscured by the thick fog and
eezing raih that descended on campus yesterday.
Wholesale price rise
suggests costly winter

CINEMA GUILD

TONIGHT AT
7:00 and 9:05

OLD ARCH. AUD.
$1.50

A HOLIDAY CONCERT
with DA VID CURTIS, tenor
ELIZABETH OLSEN, piano
works by Haydn, Bizet, Schumann,
Puccini, Wagner, Handel and Bach
SUNDY, DECEMBER 10, 1978
3:30 p.m. at CA NTERBURY LOFT
332 South State Street, second floor
______________________________________________ 2

ASHINGTON (AP)-Another big
rease in wholesale prices in Novem-
r, especially for gasoline and heating
,provided a warning yesterday that
ill be a costly winter for consumers.
verall wholesale prices increased
per cent, compared with 0.9 per cent
creases in each of the previous two
onths, the Labor Department repor-
Wholesale prices in November.
re more than double what they were
years ago.
FOR THE FIRST time in several
onths, however, food was not the chief
Iprit. A decline in the price of meat
ld the rise in food costs to 0.6 per cent,
out one-third ' the increase of the
evious two months.
But price increases of other goods of-
et most of the improvement in the
od area.
November was the first full month
nee President Carter announced his
w anti-inflation program. However,
iMinistration officials have said it
uld take as long as nine months
fore the program results in a slowing
the inflation rate, now near 10 per
nt.
THE DEPARTMENT said the price
gasoline increased 1.6 per cent and
bme heating oil rose 1.8 per cent. For
ie three-month period ending in
ovember, gasoline prices were up 5.7.
er cent and heating oil increased 4.3
er cent.
Although the increases reported
esterday were at the wholesale level,
Anniversay Sale
20% OFF
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MON. & FRI. TUES.-SAT.
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they are certain to be passed along to
consumers in higher retail prices.
Consumers in the Northeast already
are facing an increase of 3 to 4 cents per
gallon for home heating oil.

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