Food Stamps

Although there have been recent reports about how Kansas has one of the lowest food stamp participation rates throughout the country, it’s important to understand the amount of impact that the food stamp program can have on those who need it the most within the state. This is perhaps greatly illustrated by the story of one woman named Tiffani Chacon. The 21 year old single mother is a food service worker from Wichita and one of 316,000 Kansans that are enrolled in the food stamp program. She says she is grateful for the program because without it, she believes that her children would be facing starvation. Chacon is currently seeking full-time employment because she doesn’t want to always be in need of the food stamp program.

She works around 20 hours a week as a cook at the Wichita Children’s Home and earns minimum wage. She usually tries to pick up some extra hours whenever they are available, often filing in for her co-workers when they are sick or on vacation. However, not too long ago, she was living in the home’s Bridges Program. The program is used to help runaways and homeless teens learn to live on their own. Chacon’s mother died when she was only 14 and Chacon was forced to leave home when she was 17 due to a pregnancy. If she had not left, there would have been difficult circumstances with the rest of her family.

Chacon uses the benefits that she receives on her EBT card to help purchase baby food for her 6 month old son, Alexander. She also purchases groceries for herself and her 3 year old daughter, Isabella. Another older daughter lives with her father. She balances between purchasing groceries for her family, working late hours, picking up her kids from the babysitter, and all of the other responsibilities associated with being a single mom. She tries to shop once a week, purchasing the basics at the beginning of the month.

Originally, she would buy frozen foods and other items that would be more convenient for her to cook at home. However, she soon learned that those items were more expensive and less healthy, so she changed her methods. She now makes home-cooked Mexican meals most of the time. Chacon graduated high school in 2011, but college was too difficult because she had a baby at home to take care of and didn’t have enough affordable child care options that she could make use of. Instead, she looked for a job so she could take care of her children. She is planning to go back to school in January with the goal of becoming a therapist or a nurse. The counselors in the Bridges Program taught her how to shop for groceries, cook, and maintain a budget. Chacon’s story is just one of many that illustrates how having food stamp benefits can truly help some of the people in Kansas to work towards living better lives.