OKDHS Awarded Record Fourth SNAP Soaring Eagle Award

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- The Oklahoma Department of Human Services received the Soaring Eagle award for the fourth consecutive year for outstanding performance in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly Food Stamps.

“My congratulations go in particular to all of the local staff who worked tirelessly to serve record numbers of persons and assure persons received these benefits,” said Mary Stalnaker, Family Support Services Division director.

“My thanks also go to the outstanding work done by the Kathie Wright and all of the FSSD staff who work to make the administration of the SNAP program more efficient,” she said.

The award was presented Tuesday night at the SNAP Tri-Regional Conference in Charleston, S.C.

This is the first time a state in the Southwest Region, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, has won the award four consecutive years, which beats the record Oklahoma set last year by winning the award for the third consecutive year.

The award is based on the state’s performance in the areas of accuracy, timeliness and accessibility. The payment error rate in Federal Fiscal Year 2009 was 3.71 percent, below the national average of 4.20 percent.

Approximately 97 percent of the requests for SNAP Benefits were processed in the required frames.

The number of SNAP participants continues to rise with 598,126 persons receiving SNAP benefits in July 2010, an increase of 9,792 from the previous month.

SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, provides recipients with access to healthy and nutritious food.

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