SNAP program to help East Biloxians eat more fruits and veggies voted down

BILOXI -- Felix Gines said four of his fellow council members were "insensitive" when they voted at the last meeting against a pilot program designed to help residents of East Biloxi eat more fruits and vegetables.

The other areas of the city don't have the 37 percent poverty rate East Biloxi has, Gines said, and they do have grocery stores in their neighborhoods.

"They looked at it as a food stamp program," Gines said of the dissenting council members. "They don't understand the dynamics of my community."

Dixie Newman and Paul Tisdale voted for the USDA Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grant Program. Robert Deming III, George Lawrence, Kenny Glavan and David Fayard voted it down.

The 4-3 vote was not against better food for residents, the council members said, but against the language in the resolution that would require a $50,000 match from Biloxi to get more people enrolled into the federal SNAP food stamp program.

The resolution said the grant would be used in part "to develop, test and evaluate incentive strategies to stimulate SNAP registration by qualified Biloxi residents."

After the council tabled the resolution on Dec. 1, Tisdale said he looked into the program and it's designed to increase participation in SNAP for those who are eligible for food stamps, but not registered, and to get them nutritious meals.

"Spending money to determine how to put more people on food stamps is absurd," Deming said. "If we're going to do this, we need to find a better way."

City attorney Gerald Blessey said the grant application required the wording that was in the resolution. Moore Community House would have developed the grant application and Coast Transit Authority would have provided transportation for East Biloxi residents in the SNAP program to the local farmers' market or grocery store.

Instead of using the money for a study to get more people on food stamps, Deming suggested Biloxi could use the money as an incentive to attract a grocery store to East Biloxi.

Before Hurricane Katrina there was talk of getting a grocery store in East Biloxi and 10 years later it's on the mayor's future plan.

"You've already showed your lack of compassion in that area," an angry Gines said after the vote at the Dec. 15 meeting.

"Very inappropriate," Glavan said of Gines' remarks.

Two weeks later, Gines said the time for talking about alternative proposals was before the vote, but he is looking for other solutions. "The question is are they (the council) ready, Do they have any solutions?"

It's not so much that residents of East Biloxi are going hungry, he said, but that the program would have taught young East Biloxians the importance of eating healthy, which promotes better learning.

"We're trying to educate, inspire and help a community come back to life. In order to do that you've got to make some kind of investment," Gines said. "It was more than just go to the farmers' market and pick up some fruits and vegetables."

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 8:59 PM with the headline "SNAP program to help East Biloxians eat more fruits and veggies voted down ."