Food Stamp Students

Bad news may be in store for the large number of students at SMU, UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington and other area colleges who are receiving food stamps. There’s something ironic about a student whose parents are footing his tuition while the student is taking a federal food subsidy, and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is tired of the adverse publicity.

The department is considering changing present regulations, which permit a student with a small income or no income at all to purchase food stamps. Food stamps are purchased for a set amount of dollars, but will in turn purchase more dollars’ worth of food than the buyer paid for the stamps. The proposed new regulation would prohibit students whose parents are not on food stamps from obtaining food stamps themselves.

Currently the Dallas branch of thestate welfare office is canvassing its files to determine the number of students purchasing food stamps in an effort to find out just how large its public relations problem is.