BY ALFRED LUBRANO

Javina Brown, who makes $9.75 an hour working for Boston Market, applied for food stamps in June but was denied. Her salary was $4 a month too high.

As of this week, however, Brown and others like her will be eligible for food stamps. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania has raised the income limit for the program.

"It's a blessing," said Brown, 32, who lives in South Philadelphia with her 10-year-old daughter and will get an estimated $360 a month in food stamps.

"I can go to the Italian Market and buy meat. I can feed my daughter well. I can do a lot with that money."

The change was made by the Department of Public Welfare, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, the new name given to the food-stamp program last year). All food-stamp money is federal, although states must pay half the administrative costs.

Effective immediately, the gross-income limit for food stamps rises from 130 percent of the federal poverty line to 160 percent. That means a family of four that makes as much as $33,924 a year is eligible. Previously the limit was $27,564.

The poverty line for such a family is $1,767 a month, or $21,204 annually.

"This is an exciting change that advocates have been pushing for a long time," said Rachel Meeks, food-stamp campaign manager for the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. "We're thrilled the state is doing this during a recession when people desperately need food assistance."

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