Working Poor Still Struggle

ByABC News
December 13, 2000, 11:28 AM

A L B U Q U E R Q U E, N.M., Dec. 13 -- To the working poor looking in on abooming economy from the outside, housing and fuel prices haveexploded and health care, prescription drug and car repair costsarent far behind.

Thats leaving precious little for food budgets this holidayseason, almost five years into the welfare reform acts efforts tomove people off welfare and into jobs.

A lot of the people that eat here have jobs, said chef JoeCailteux, cooking up ham, noodle casserole and green beans atAlbuquerques Salvation Army kitchen. As a matter of fact, wehave scheduled the hours that we feed here in order to feed thepeople who do attempt to work.

A year ago, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that demand foremergency food assistance grew 18 percent over 1998 in 26 cities.Thursday, they plan an update on hunger and homelessness.

Difficult Decisions

A U.S. Agriculture Department study last year found 10 millionfamilies, or 9.7 percent of U.S. households, had inadequate accessto food in 1996-98. New Mexico topped the list at 15.1 percent.

It does become a choice between do I take my child to thedoctor, pay my utility bill or go to the grocery store and buyfood? said Cindy Cerf, spokeswoman for St. Marys Food Bank inPhoenix, which distributes 30 million pounds of food a year, mostlyto 900 relief agencies in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

These arent people who are depending on welfare, she said.Its just that theyre at the low end of the pay scale.

Also suffering are people whose jobs dont include healthbenefits, said Sister Paulette LoMonaco, executive director of GoodShepherd Services in New York City.

Their salaries arent sufficient to provide benefits or aliving wage, so when a small problem comes up, it becomes acatastrophe, she said.

Single mother Margaret Trujillo of Albuquerque earns $60 a weekfrom baby-sitting and gets $120 a month in food stamps. She saysrising fuel prices mean she cant pay her bills, so she turned to afood pantry to make sure she and her 3-year-old son have enough toeat.