WORK hour reductions and unemployment have raised by as much as 19 percent the total number of CNMI households receiving food stamps in March compared to the same month last year.
The number of households benefiting from the federal food stamp program stood at 2,018 in March, compared to 1,691 in March last year.
Latest data from the Nutrition Assistance Program showed that majority or 973 of these household recipients had unearned income, while 506 had no income at all.
NAP Director James Kintol said he would personally request the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the local food stamp funding for fiscal year 2003.
NAP’s current funding is $7.1 million.
Kintol will soon be in California to discuss NAP’s annual funding with USDA.
“It seems the economy is still not doing good, so we have seen households with reduced work hours or who are out of job,” Kintol told Variety on Friday.
The amount of food stamp benefits also soared to $520,632 in March—marking a 26 percent increase from the same month last year.
Kintol said the amount of food stamp benefits will not increase as the CNMI’s consumer price index remains “pretty much stable.”
Chamorro households top the list of food stamp recipients with 886 families, followed by Filipinos with 471 households and Carolinians with 337 households.
NAP data also showed 133 Chuukese households and 106 Palauan households receiving food stamps.
The food stamp household membership as of March also consisted of 42 Pohnpeians, 16 mainland Americans, five Marshallese, four Chinese, three Kosraeans, two Thais, one Indonesian, one Japanese, one Korean and one Samoan.
NAP is a federal program funded annually by the USDA under a memorandum of understanding between the CNMI government and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. It is locally administered by the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.
In related news, NAP is transferring to a bigger office space on the first floor of JTV Building in As Lito from its current location on the second floor.
“This is a bigger office space for us and for the program members. We expect that by May 31, the transfer is already completed,” Kintol said.
