Chef Curtis catches catfish
Sabraton is a small, unincorporated community in Monongalia County, W.Va. Just a 15-minute drive out of Morgantown, the coal town has very few grocery store options.
A Save-A-Lot offers many popular food brands at discount prices. A Shop ‘n Save, about 10 minutes away outside of Cheat Lake, also offers discounted products.
Curtis, who opted to not give his last name, works as a probation officer in Morgantown. He said that he regularly shops at the Sabraton Kroger, but also frequents the neighborhood’s discount stores and a nearby Walmart.
Curtis said he prefers to cook at home, rather than go out to eat. In fact, it’s in his blood — his mother, brother and grandfather were all cooks.
“If you left our house without knowing how to cook, something was wrong,” he joked.
When asked about alternative methods of obtaining food, Curtis told us that he and his family went fishing in Pennsylvania over the recent Labor Day weekend. His visit to Kroger on Sept. 7 was to get ingredients to fix the catfish they caught.
Curtis and his family also enjoy sharing food with their neighbors, and they occasionally prepare food for neighborhood potlucks.
Although he doesn’t use government assistance programs, Curtis’ clients do take advantage of the services. His clients, typically people fighting addiction and those with criminal backgrounds, also frequent food pantries.
As for SNAP and WIC programs, Curtis said that people who need help should take advantage of the services offered to them.
“…Sometimes in life people need help. You have to — those that struggle, or refuse to ask for help — that’s how they find themselves in situations where someone will go steal a carton of eggs instead of being able to go down to the DHHR and get help and be able to afford the eggs, just by having some assistance,” he said. “I’d rather you have assistance than stealing food.”
However, Curtis doesn’t think that the programs are without their faults. He felt that while programs like SNAP are beneficial to most of their users, some people abuse the system.
“There really needs to be a regulation for how people can use it and not use too much. There’s a lot of families that get some money on food stamps and don’t use them all,” he said. “So, they sell them because they need cash — which is illegal, but they still do it.”
He added that there needs to be a way to keep track of how and where people use their SNAP card.
“I feel that it should have more identity to it, because all it has is a name on it,” he said. “So, there’s really no way to regulate who’s using it and who’s not using it.”
However, that is a goal that the USDA is actively working toward.
The use of an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card allows the USDA to audit what is being purchased with benefits, and prevent SNAP fraud — the exchange of SNAP benefits for money or other ineligible items. Combined with increased oversight of the program, the national trafficking rate has fallen over the last few decades, from approximately four cents on the dollar in 1993 to about one cent in 2013.
According to a 2013 press release, the USDA has implemented a rule allowing state agencies to deny a request for a replacement EBT card if the recipient has submitted an excessive number of requests. Because excessive replacement requests is often an indicator of SNAP fraud, the rule provides state agencies time to conduct an investigation into that recipient’s case.
The USDA has also worked to permanently remove “bad actors,” or retail stores known to have participated in trafficking, from the program. More than 8,300 stores have been disqualified over the last decade. Stronger sanctions and penalties, such as a $10,000 fine, for stores caught trafficking are also being proposed.
