Study Finds 25% of Troops Use Food Banks

Military ^ | Aug 18, 2014 | Amy Bushatz

[george76]

A new study suggests that 25 percent of troops in active duty, Guard and the Reserve use food banks to provide groceries and meals for themselves or their families.

The study sponsored by Feeding America, the nation's largest food bank network, is conducted once every four years and was based on data collected in 2012. It found that four percent of surveyed households who used a food bank contained a currently serving military member.

Based on those results, Feeding America officials estimated that 620,000 of their 46.5 million customers, or about 25 percent of the military population in 2012, used food banks.

"We find it disheartening," said Maura Daly, a spokesman for Feeding America. "We know from our food banks anecdotally that they have seen a dramatic increase in the number of military families that they are serving over the last several years. We weren't surprised that the need is there. We were a little surprised by how much need is there, and we believe that this is just the beginning of understanding this issue."

The study did not differentiate between Guard and Reserve or active duty members, creating no way to tell what portion of the four percent are inactive guard or Reservists, who may have vastly different monthly income and different assistance needs as compared to active duty members.

Pentagon officials took immediate issue with the study's methodology. They said that surveying households instead of individuals while comparing those numbers to military data creates an inaccurate picture.

[Jacquerie]

<>Christensen said pay for active duty members or activated Guard and Reservists is better among officers than 90 percent of comparative civilians and, among enlisted, better than 83 percent of civilians with similar education and experience levels.<>

There is no better combination of pay and bennies for someone walking out of high school.

I wonder if/how the data is skewed by single mothers.

[Mastador1]

Where is the outrage from liberals? We are constantly beat over the head that people can’t raise a family on fast food wages, something that entry level jobs were never meant to do, but when word comes out that America fails to take care of the families of those who have committed their lives to the defence of it’s people all we hear from liberals is............................the sound of silence!

[Uncle Miltie]

EBT is great.

I would like to thank my fellow taxpayers for the meal I had yesterday, courtesy of a middle-class kid who is on EBT while attending college. We had:

Artisanal Beer Bread
Goat cheese with herbs
Smoked salmon
Organic orange cherry tomatoes
Dark chocolate bar with sizzling chili

All that on the taxpayer! Too bad I had to buy drinks, otherwise the whole meal would have been FREE.

[Mogger]

This is because of generations of percentage pay increases, rather than flat dollar increases.

The same thing has happened in many fields, including teachers.

Those at the top are overpaid and those at the bottom underpaid.

If course those at the top are the ones negotiating increases in many situations, especially teachers.

We need to stop all pay increases for the upper ranks of the military for a few years, and give substantial flat dollar increases to the lower ones for a while, then continue with flat dollar for all.

[strider44]

How many of those soldiers using the food bank have a smart phone with an expensive data plan? More video games/systems than a Japanese teanager? I’ve seen it. I’ve grown a bit cynical in my 19 years of service after listening to every possible soldier problem you can imagine...

[RJS1950]

Not just single mothers. There are the millions out of work since the Kenyan put his racist policies into motion who also skew the figures. There are also the supposed “bennies” that have always been rolled into pay when they calculate things like this. Most of the non-pay bennies are separate from pay because congress knows that retirement pay is based on their active duty pay so they keep retirement pay low by putting most of the compensation into non-pay categories. 50% of base pay ends up being about 30 percent of their total “computed” active duty pay with the bennies.

[ansel12]

I would love to see the demographic breakdown of those comfortable with accepting welfare.

Forty years ago my wife and I were eligible for food stamps and we desperately needed help with the low military pay of the time, especially when I stopped receiving paychecks entirely, for a period of time, (at the time, to correct overpays, they would just keep everything until it was paid back).

I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and instead scavenged C-rations from field exercises to supplement our eating, you can imagine what my well bred teen wife thought of C-rations.

[NEMDF]

Yep... not to mention, a $500/month payment on their new pickup truck with all the bells and whistles, 50” flat screen, and so on.

[antidisestablishment]

This is total bs. There is already a supplemental allowance for enlisted members who (would) qualify for assistance:

FSSA

Plus they get full pay and allowances.

[rfreedom4u]

I was a CFNCO prior to retirement. We had an agreement with the local food banks that if a Soldier came to them they would send them back to get the appropriate documentation from AER. When I would compile their budgets I would point out all the frivolous items and expenses they had. Many times they didn’t want to tell me everything so I would ask for a bank statement. The truth would come out and they would be counseled on the potential changes and the potential consequences if the changes weren’t made.

[Henry Hnyellar]

Yep. Check em out.

http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/militarypaytables.html

http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/2014clothingallowance.html

http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/specialpay.html

http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm

http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/payentitlements/specialpay.html