Oklahomas SNAP Earns Soaring Eagle Award from Feds

May SNAP Numbers Set New Records

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL – For the third year in a row, Oklahoma has received several prestigious awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service Southwest Region for the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The awards included: the Regional Directors Soaring Eagle award, Excellence in Initial Budget Projection award and the Quality Control Star award. This is the third consecutive year Oklahoma has received the Soaring Eagle honor.

“The awards represent the highest symbol of excellence in overall agency performance,” said Oklahoma Department of Human Services Director Howard Hendrick, who accepted the award June 2 at the 2009 Tri-Regional Food Stamp Program Improvement Conference in Santa Fe, NM. “Our human services staff has really taken on the challenge of tackling hunger in Oklahoma. There efforts continue to help record numbers of Oklahomans every day.”

The awards come as the May SNAP participation reports for Oklahoma were released, showing a record number of cases topping 200,000 for the first time in state history.

The May report showed 201,208 active SNAP cases in Oklahoma, containing 474,971 persons – also a new state record and 11,545 more Oklahomans than were served in April. The number of people in May’s caseload would fill the University of Oklahoma football stadium five and one half times, Hendrick added.

“I am extremely proud of our frontline staff across the Department for continuing to meet the increasing demands for services during times when we are not able to add personnel to cover the bulging caseloads,” said Hendrick.

OKDHS earned the awards for achieving the highest combined points for SNAP access, customer service, most improved in payment accuracy and negative actions and program integrity. The USDA Southwest Region includes Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico.

The SNAP enables low-income families to buy nutritious food with an Access Oklahoma electronic benefits card. Families receiving SNAP benefits buy eligible food in authorized stores. The USDA funds the SNAP; no state funds are required. The USDA determines the amount of SNAP benefits an individual or family may receive through the Thrifty Food Plan, which estimates how much it costs to buy food and prepare nutritious, low-cost meals for a household. This estimate changes every year to keep up with changing food prices.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (federal stimulus funds), increased SNAP benefits 13.6 percent, effective April 1. The stimulus funds provide an additional $6 million in the Oklahoma economy monthly and go a long way toward providing additional help to needy families.

SNAP eligibility depends on the amount of income available to the household. Able-bodied adults without dependents between the ages of 18 and 50 must be exempt or comply with specific work requirements. OKDHS social services specialists in county human services centers process SNAP applications according to specific USDA requirements.

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