Food Stamps Go Electronic

The government's food stamp program is going fully electronic, and with no more stamps -- actually coupons -- the Agriculture Department is looking for a snazzier name for the program that helps the needy buy groceries.

The department announced that "the paper era" of the Food Stamp Program will end this month. People will use a plastic card much like a bank debit card to make purchases.

Food stamps are the cornerstone of the federal government's food assistance programs, but the use of coupons has been shrinking dramatically in recent years as most states shifted to the electronic system.

Four more states joined the electronic age last year, leaving only six counties in central California and the U.S. territory of Guam holding out. But they too will shift to the electronic system this month, marking the system-wide phase-out of use of the food stamp coupons, according to the department.

Paper coupons will be replaced by something called Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT for short.

In the electronic age, the term "food stamps" no longer has the right ring for the program, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said. She said her department will ask for suggestions for a new name "to better reflect the mission of this vital program" that subsidizes food purchases for 23 million low-income Americans every month.

Congress will have to pass a law for a name change. The original program which actually used color-coded stamps began in 1939 and ended in 1943. The modern era of the Food Stamp Program began in 1961 as a pilot operation and in full scale in 1964.

According to the Agriculture Department, the average household income of a food stamp recipient was $624 a month in 2001, the latest figures available. About a third of the families have incomes at 50 percent or less of what is considered poverty.

Congress in 1996 mandated the phasing in of the electronic system in an attempt to improve accountability, reduce fraud, and reduce the likelihood of coupons being stolen.

Veneman said the phase-in of the electronic system has reduced the number of erroneous food stamp payments. "Program accuracy has improved by 25 percent over the last three years," said Veneman.

The government's stocks of food stamp coupons are being destroyed, though people having coupons may still use them.

The six California counties that are the last to shift to the electronic system are Lake, Mendocino, Tuolumne, Placer, Calaveras and Amador, according to the Agriculture Department.

By H. Josef Hebert