Base resources
Airman & Family Readiness Center
Provides education and services to help service-members address financial challenges, including helping people access Air Force Aid Society (available to service-members and retirees) and other nonprofit financial help.
For more information, call (937) 257-3592
Airman’s Attic
Provides donated uniforms and household goods to active-duty service-members with pay grades of E-6 and below.
…..
Off-base resources
United Way helpline
This can direct anyone to food pantries and other resources in the area. Call 211 or (937) 225-3000.
Job and Family Services
Administers food stamp, subsidized childcare and other government programs.
Montgomery County: (937) 225-4148
Greene County: (937) 562-6000
WIC
Administered by the Ohio Department of Health. Applicants can call the Help Me Grow Helpline at 1-800-755-GROW (1-800-755-4769) for specific clinic locations.
By the numbers
23,000: Estimated number of active-duty service-members on food stamps
$21 million: Amount in food stamps spent at base commissaries
9: Percent of active-duty service-members who get WIC or cash assistance
1.3 million: Number of active-duty service-members in the U.S. military
24: Percent of active-duty service-members whose kids qualify for free meals at base schools
Our reporters probe government reports and databases to find stories that impact you. For past I-Team stories go to myDaytonDailyNews.com.
Half an hour before the front doors were unlocked at 2 p.m., dozens of men and women stood in line Tuesday outside the FISH Food Pantry in Fairborn.
“They will line up a couple of hours before we open,” said pantry food manager Jane Doorley. “Sometimes it will wrap around the building.”
Among those waiting are fathers and mothers, some with disabilities, but most have jobs: cashiers, waitresses, and active-duty members of the U.S. military.
Tens of thousands of active-duty service-members rely on public assistance to feed their families, and countless more may need assistance but face barriers to getting it, an I-Team investigation found.
This comes as little surprise to Patty Davis, food pantry manager. She sees dozens of military members every year.
“I think that’s pretty sad,” she said. “They can come here. If they’re hungry, we’d be happy to help them.”
As she talked, volunteers stocked shelves and tables with produce, baked goods, and fresh and preserved goods.
Doorley said the pantry — one of four FISH locations in Greene County — last year served 51 active-duty military members, 130 veterans and hundreds of other families. The average person who comes through the door, she said, works more than one job.
But even those using the pantry were dismayed to learn how many people serving in the Armed Forces number among the working poor.
“It’s a shameful thing,” said Cynthia VanMeter, who moved to the area as a military spouse in the 1970s. “They risk their lives, and we need to give them life … Food is life.”
23K on food stamps
Roughly 23,000 service-members rely on food stamps to make ends meet — a population three times the active-duty military workforce at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office study released in July. The report cited U.S. Census Bureau data from 2013.
More than $21 million a year is spent in food stamps at base commissaries, and nearly a quarter of children in Department of Defense stateside schools are eligible for free meals, the GAO report found.
The report criticizes the Department of Defense for doing too little to track how often active-duty service-members use food assistance programs, which could help identify obstacles to providing resources they need.
Wright-Patterson officials also don’t keep track of how often its airmen use public assistance — they apply through the county, like everyone else — though the base encourages airmen to take advantage of whatever resources they need.
Base officials say they try to support their troops on every level, including daily “morale checks” from unit commanders, financial counseling and other training at the Airman & Family Readiness Center, and working with the USO and other organizations to provide support.
Base officials declined a request by this newspaper to tour the readiness center, where airmen can go for various types of financial assistance.
“It is my greatest honor to lead our fantastic young airmen, but that privilege is also a great responsibility,” Col. Bradley McDonald, 88th Air Base Wing commander, said in a statement. “I recognize that moms and dads have sent their sons and daughters to serve our country and they have entrusted them to our care.”
‘Painful reality’
Determining eligibility for government programs can be difficult for military families, complicated by the different ways active-duty service-members are paid.
The GAO report notes that a service-member in the E-4 pay grade — a senior airman in the Air Force — appears most likely to need assistance.
Base pay for an E-4 with four years in the service is $2,382 per month. They can get a housing allowance — $1,122 per month at WPAFB — and a food allowance of $368 per month.
Eligibility for food stamps counts all of this income — though not combat pay — and is available based on family size to anyone making up to 130 percent of the federal poverty level. So with a total annual income of $46,464, an airman could qualify for food stamps with a family size of seven.
Studies have shown military families are far more likely to be single-income households because of the difficulty military spouses face in finding jobs.
Some think more troops should have access to the program.
In January, Abby Leibman, CEO of the anti-hunger nonprofit MAZON, told a U.S. House Committee on Agriculture that a housing allowance should not be included in determining eligibility for food stamps.
“For currently serving members of the military, food insecurity is triggered by a number of different circumstances, including low pay among lower ranking enlistees, high unemployment among military spouses, larger household sizes, challenges around activation and deployment, and unexpected financial emergencies,” she said.
“There can be no denying that food insecurity among military families is a real and painful reality and that government safety net programs are not adequately meeting the needs of those who serve our country.”
If the housing allowance were excluded from eligibility, the same E-4 listed above could qualify for food stamps with a spouse and three kids.
Other programs, charities
Another program called WIC — Women, Infants and Children — does not count the housing allowance when determining income, and is available to women making up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level. So a female E-4 with four years in the service could qualify with a family size of three.
WIC provides education and helps eligible pregnant women and new moms buy nutritious foods such as cereal, eggs, milk, whole grain foods, fruits and vegetables, and iron-fortified infant formula.
In 2013, the Department of Defense conducted a survey that found 9 percent of active-duty service-members or their spouses used WIC or received cash assistance checks.
The GAO also looked at military families whose kids qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. The study looked at the military’s network of 52 on-base schools and determined that at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year an estimated 26 percent were eligible for free meals and 25 percent were eligible for reduced price meals.
The Air Force Aid Society, the official charity of the U.S. Air Force, provides grants and interest-free loans to help airmen and retirees. The AFAS spent $300,000 on food assistance in 2015 and $600,000 in each of the previous two years, according to the GAO report.
Scott Hald, an emergency assistance caseworker at the AFAS, said service-members face the same emergencies everyone else does: an auto transmission blows out, a child or family member gets sick, the house needs a huge repair and so on.
“If you owned a home and your air conditioner went out and you need $4,000 to repair it, do you have $4,000?” he said. “We’re just here to help service-members and their families in their time of need and we realize everybody has a time of need.”
Food stamps at base
The on-base commissary at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has received nearly $3.2 million in food stamps since 2009 and $144,592 from the WIC program. Usage has declined in recent years, down by nearly half since 2012.
The commissary is open not only to WPAFB airmen, but also retirees and their spouses. Base officials say there are about 100,000 retirees living in a 100-mile radius from the base, compared to about 7,000 active military members.
“It is logical that a large portion of commissary shoppers are not active-duty airmen and it would follow that (food stamp) and WIC usage wouldn’t be exclusive to airmen,” said base spokesman Daryl Mayer. “It is certainly reasonable to see widows of retired members or divorced spouses with children still eligible for benefits as being potential users.”
The commissary itself serves as a benefit. It sells food at cost plus a 5-percent surcharge. Compared to the normal commercial markup, the DOD estimates it saves patrons an average of more than 30 percent compared to shopping off-base.
About a block from the commissary is another service aimed at helping those in need. The Airman’s Attic, operated by the USO, serves troops with pay grades of E-6 and below.
On Tuesday, volunteers Kim Semsel and Joyce Fronzaglia sorted through donated uniforms. Members of the military pay for the uniforms they must wear, clean and pressed every day, as well as boots and stripes. The cost can add up, so the attic offers used items for free.
The Attic also offers donated household goods and children’s items. Semsel said recently a military wife came in, pregnant and with three kids. Her husband was deployed and they had just relocated, but their dishes and kids clothes hadn’t arrived yet.
“That’s why we’re here,” she said.
The Attic is upstairs from a USO lounge, which offers a game room and internet cafe with free food and snacks. Actor Gary Sinise, whose Lt. Dan Band recently played at the base, donated overstuffed recliners for the game room and 10 new dish sets and child car seats to the Attic — which Semsel said were snatched up immediately.
Some barriers
In addition to finding that the military doesn’t have a good handle on how many troops are in need of help, the GAO report found service-members can face barriers to getting aid.
Military officials reported that the “self-sufficient culture of the military” can inflate the stigma some people associate with getting public assistance. The report says this stigma applies especially to food stamps, and less so for using food pantries or WIC.
But a potentially bigger problem is a lack of awareness about available services, and confusion about how eligibility is calculated with the various ways troops are paid.
Donyce Montgomery, Montgomery County Job and Family Services manager, encourages people to apply for these and other programs, such as subsidized childcare.
“They may not think they qualify, and unless they come in and apply they may not know,” she said. “We believe the programs are out there and are available for everybody, whether they are military or not, and you just need to apply for them.”
At the Page Manor housing complex next to Wright-Patterson, one airman watched as his kids swung on the playground and waged Nerf war on Tuesday. The man didn’t want to give his name because he didn’t have his commanding officer’s approval to talk to the media, but he had no qualms talking about how he used WIC in 2002 when he was an E-3 and a new father stationed in Japan.
He said the program helped his family make ends meet.
“My philosophy is you’re serving to die for your country,” he said. “So whatever services are available, you should use them.”
About the Author
