Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290020
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

FOOD STAMP ASSISTANCE HITS RECORD LEVEL

"This unprecedented need for food assistance clearly shows that the recovery still has produced no major increase in jobs or family income," Espy told the House Agriculture Committee.

The numbers were a slight increase over the previous record of 26.8 million set in January, and a 1.5 million-person increase over February 1992.

Participation first exceeded 26 million people in September. Except for a slight dip in October, the numbers have been growing since.

The average benefit per person totaled $68.31, the department's Food and Nutrition Service said. Benefits totaled $1.84 billion in February this year, compared with $1.75 billion in February 1992.

The food stamp benefit averages $2.25 a day, or 76 cents a meal for each person.

Food stamp use increased in all parts of the country except the Southeast, where it dropped 1.07 percent from January, and the Midwest, where it dropped 0.33 percent.

Use increased in the three states with the most participants: New York, up 0.76 percent, to 2.03 million; Texas, up 0.31 percent, to 2.65 million; and California, up 1.88 percent, to 2.84 million.

Espy appeared before the committee to outline the administration's food stamp proposals. The subcommittee on department operations and nutrition met afterward to hear testimony on pending food stamp legislation, the Mickey Leland Childhood Hunger Relief Act.

The administration proposal includes most elements of the pending bill, named after the Texas congressman who was killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia.

The administration wants to increase spending for food stamps by $585 million in 1994 and by $7.5 billion over the next five years.