County food stamp office adds 14 temporary workers
Source: By ASHLEY COOK, The Lufkin Daily News (TX), Thursday, October 26, 2006
The Angelina County food stamp office has added 14 temporary employees to skirt a mismanaged private call center application process until problems can be addressed when the legislature returns to session in January, state Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, said Thursday. New applicants to the food stamp program have been waiting between 18 and 40 days for eligibility, getting by on short-term emergency stamps and donations, overburdening local charities, according to Linda Smelley, executive director of the Christian Information and Service Center, the county's largest food bank.
....... Mishandling by the commission and a private contractor dragging its feet means Texas may lose millions in federal food stamp dollars, according to a press release by Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn Wednesday.