USDA TO DETERMINE CONVENIENCE STORES' FOOD STAMPS ACCEPTANCE

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reviewing whether nearly 900 convenience stores that now accept food stamps are ineligible because staple items account for less than 50 percent of their sales.

The law requires that 50 percent of a certified store's food stamp sales must consist of staple items such as bread, cereal, milk and meat. "Accessory" foods like candy, coffee and fountain drinks all of which can be bought with food stamps may account for the rest of the store's food stamp sales.

The problem is that the relatively recent boom in the sale of carbonated beverages in convenience stores has reversed many stores' staple-to-accessory ratio.

Alcohol, tobacco, hot foods or hot foods prepared for immediate consumption are the only items that cannot be purchased with food stamps.

Whether any stores in the Cape Girardeau area are in danger of losing their food stamp certification is unknown because the two-year review is still under way. A telephone check of local convenience stores turned up only three that accept stamps.

One store manager does not allow people to buy fountain drinks with food stamps, erroneously believing that is against the law.

Howard Blackmon, the manager at Kwik Pantry, 1702 Broadway, said his store sells "quite a bit of food" to people with food stamps. He did not know what the percentage is.

But Blackmon is not particularly worried that his store may be on the USDA hit list. His store's sales of fountain drinks have dropped because nearby stores sell them for less.

Blackmon said his store does have one rule pertaining to fountain drinks purchased with food stamps: A straw can't be inserted while the drink is still in the store. He said the policy doesn't apply to all fountain drink sales. "It has something to do with food stamps."

A spokesman at the store's home office in Fort Worth, Texas, said the policy prevents food from being consumed on the premises, which follows the letter of the regulations. Those regulations promote the sale of food to be consumed at home.

The spokesman pointed out that you can buy a pizza for home delivery with food stamps but you cannot consume the same pizza at the pizzaria.

But Craig Forman, regional public affairs director for the USDA in Denver, said the store is taking the regulations too far. Consuming the drinks at a stand-up counter or a sit-down area would be illegal, Forman said, but sipping the drink while waiting in line certainly would not.

"I hope the day never arrives where government is looking over our shoulders to that extent," Forman said.

The review of licensed stores is done periodically to make sure they are complying with the regulations, a USDA spokeswoman said.

"This is not a big effort to put convenience stores out of business," said Joanne Widner, a public affairs specialist with the USDA field office in Denver.

The concern in some quarters is that inner city areas already abandoned by big grocery chains will lose their last source of food if convenience stores forfeit their food stamp licenses.

More than one in 10 Americans now receives food stamps. A record 26.43 Americans were on food stamp rolls in September.

To qualify for food stamps in Cape Girardeau County, a single person must earn less than $738 per month. The gross income of two people must be less than $996 per month.

A family of four must have a gross income of less than $1,512 to qualify for food stamps.

In Cape Girardeau County during September, 5,187 people received food stamps. The county's 1990 population was 61,633.

Those 5,187 people constituted 2,178 households.

Of those 5,187 people, 3,544 of them were not getting any kind of public assistance such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, General Relief, Aid to the Blind and Medical Assistance."

The average amount spent with food stamps per person in the county during September was $64.98.

The total amount of food stamps issued to Cape countians during the month was $337,067.

In Missouri during the fiscal year 1992 (July 1991 to July 1992), 910,352 food stamp recipients spent $430 million both all-time highs. The $430 million figure was a $72 million increase over the previous year.

"More people are on the program because of the economy," said Paul Spicer, administrator of food assistance programs for the Division of Family Services in Jefferson City.

Based on the first four months of fiscal 1993, Spicer estimated that food stamp spending in the coming year will exceed the old record by $20 million.