The food stamp secretary

Tom Vilsack runs the food stamp program for our so-called “food stamp president.”

Iowa's former governor and current U.S. secretary of agriculture oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Maybe we don't think about the ag department running the massive food assistance program. But food stamps and food producers are linked, with about 16 cents of every dollar spent on groceries going to farmers. Vilsack actually came to our editorial board this month to stick up for those farmers and for rural America, an easier task than sticking up for food stamps.

Especially now. Critics point to growing food stamps roles as proof of the president's economic failures. They also want to cut billions from the program. So the same folks who claim the White House piloted our economy into an iceberg now want to torpedo the life boats.

But they're such an easy target. Food stamps recipients are pretty much just lazy welfare addicts. Right?

“There is a lot of misunderstanding about those programs,” Vilsack said.

Only about 8 percent of SNAP recipients also get cash welfare payments, Vilsack said, compared to 42 percent in 1992. A new Congressional Budget Office report found that “three out of four SNAP households included a child, a person age 60 or older, or a disabled person.” SNAP aid goes to 45 million people, a  70-percent jump since 2007.

In Iowa, 191,043 households out of the state's 1.2 million received food assistance in March, according to state figures, up 10.4 percent from 2011, with an average monthly household benefit of $259.20, or $121.18 per person. Among those who received help during the last 60 months, the average period of assistance was 31.42 months. During 2011, 35,898 people in Linn County received assistance.

There's been a lot of talk about barring recipients from buying “junk food.” Vilsack says it's understandable but, logistically, very tough. You can target soda, but what about sugary juices? Sweets may be unhealthy, but what about sodium? With 300,000 items on store shelves, sifting out the "junk" is a daunting task.

FYI, here's the basic eligible/ineligible items list:

Eligible Food Items

 Households CAN use SNAP benefits to buy:

 Foods for the household to eat, such as:

-- breads and cereals;

-- fruits and vegetables;

-- meats, fish and poultry; and

-- dairy products.

 Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat.

 In some areas, restaurants can be authorized to accept SNAP benefits from qualified homeless, elderly, or disabled people in exchange for low-cost meals.

 Households CANNOT use SNAP benefits to buy:

 Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco;

 Any nonfood items, such as:

 -- pet foods;

-- soaps, paper products; and

-- household supplies.

 Vitamins and medicines.

 Food that will be eaten in the store.

 Hot foods.

Vilsack says the department, instead, is experimenting with offering small incentives for recipients who buy fresh fruits and vegetables. The grocer still gets full price. The customer gets a discount credited to their SNAP card. With 800,000 fraud cases investigated by the department last year, offering a carrot seems smarter than unleashing the soda pop police, especially if our concern is the health of recipients, particularly kids.

Still, it seems like the concern I hear more often is that SNAP has no sting, too little shame or stigma. Some folks think the debit cards make using food assistance too easy, although they also make it easier to detect fraud.

Do I wish fewer people needed food stamps? Of course. Do I think the 31-month average stay in the program in Iowa is troubling? Yes. But I also, thankfully, haven't experienced what each of these families are going through. It's easy to rail against an "entitlement class." It's much harder to feed a family with rising prices and a tiny, stagnant paycheck, or after a job loss. The basic truth is that an economic turnaround will shrink the roles just as the recession helped fill them.

In the meantime, people need to eat. And the notion that getting help buying food is some outlandish, luxurious perk worthy of our scorn, especially in the midst of a slow-motion recovery, is hard to swallow.