By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE number of adults and children in the CNMI receiving food stamps has increased by 10 percent, and Nutrition Assistance Program administrator Eleanor S. Cruz yesterday said they anticipate a further increase in membership this year.
“The two major factors in the increase are government austerity Fridays and the closure of garment factories,” Cruz told Variety yesterday. “Because government workers have reduced work hours and therefore get less pay, they became eligible for the program.”
In calendar year 2006, the average number of individual food stamp recipients reached 7,994 compared to 7,397.
However, starting in June 2006, the average number of food stamp recipients reached over 8,000 a month — compared to about 7,000 in the previous months and less than 1,000 in the early 1990’s.
“We anticipate additional participants this year because of the austerity holidays and business closures,” Cruz said.
The close to 8,000 food stamp recipients in 2006 belonged to 2,596 households on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
As a result of the increase in the number of food stamp recipients, NAP posted a 10 percent increase in benefits to program members — from $7.18 million in 2005 to $7.89 million in 2006.
NAP, which is under the CNMI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, receives its funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service.
The food stamp program provides assistance to low-income families to ensure that their nutritional needs are satisfied. Inclusion in the program depends on the income, age, and number of individuals in a household.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources included in its “25” questions or inquiries addressed to the U.S. Department of the Interior a summary of the rates of participation in major and local welfare programs in the CNMI, along with historical data that would show any trends.
The majority of the recipients of the food stamp program, for example, come from Chamorro, Carolinian, Filipino and Chinese households.
“Is there any correlation between the high rate of welfare participation and the CNMI’s labor and immigration policies?” asked the U.S. Senate panel which wants to federalize the CNMI immigration system. It conducted a hearing on the CNMI labor, immigration, law enforcement and economic situation on Feb. 8.
Former Gov. Juan N. Babauta, in a Jan. 3, 2007 letter to Congressman George Miller in support of raising the CNMI’s minimum wage of $3.05 an hour, said that in 1992, there was an average of 565 persons enrolled in the food stamp program on the islands.
He said this increased by 303 percent to 2,276 last year.
“(This) despite overall job growth of 10,000 new jobs added between 1992 and 2005. Our problems stem from the low wage paid,” Babauta told Miller, D-Calif. and author of the bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25, which will also include the CNMI.
The local wage rate has been $3.05 an hour since 1996.