{"id":459629,"date":"2010-03-22T15:59:53","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a964e02b970b"},"modified":"2010-03-22T18:43:43","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T22:43:43","slug":"outreach-efforts-seek-to-boost-food-stamp-participation-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/459629","title":{"rendered":"Outreach efforts seek to boost food stamp participation [Updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-food-stamps21-2010mar21,0,2474321.story\" >fewer than half the eligible Californians<\/a> enrolled in the federal food stamp program, state and local officials have been stepping up efforts to spread awareness of the benefit. <\/p>\n<p>The California Department of Social Services has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foodstamps-step1.usda.gov\/fns\/\" >pre-screening tool<\/a> posted on its website that people can use to estimate if they are eligible for food stamps.\u00a0They can also download the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dss.cahwnet.gov\/cdssweb\/entres\/forms\/English\/DFA285A1.pdf\" >forms<\/a> to apply for the program.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles County <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ladpss.org\/new_portal\/dpss_foodstamps.cfm\" >Department of Public Social Services<\/a> sends outreach workers to food pantries, health centers and other community sites to inform residents about food stamps. It has\u00a0also contracted with faith-based and other nonprofit organizations to help residents with the application process. <\/p>\n<p>The city of Los Angeles has opened 21 <a href=\"http:\/\/mayor.lacity.org\/PressRoom\/PressReleases\/LACITYP_008757\" >Family Source Centers<\/a> to provide free counseling and connect struggling residents to government services. At the centers, residents can fill out a form known as a One-E-App to help determine eligibility for a variety of programs, including food stamps. <\/p>\n<p>More information about California&#8217;s food stamp program is available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-food-stamps-glance21-2010mar21,0,376040.story\" >here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[<strong>Updated at 3:40 p.m.:<\/strong> California First Lady Maria Shriver and the Women&#8217;s Conference are hosting a three-day community resources fair beginning Friday to help connect Los Angeles families to free support services, including tax preparation, flu shots and food stamps. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weconnect.net\/index.php\/public\/home\/page\/203\/California\" >WE Connect Weekend Los Angeles<\/a> will take place at the Forum in Inglewood.]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Alexandra Zavis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With fewer than half the eligible Californians enrolled in the federal food stamp program, state and local officials have been stepping up efforts to spread awareness of the benefit. The California Department of Social Services has a pre-screening tool posted on its website that people can use to estimate if they are eligible for food [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4565,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4565"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}