BY CRAIG SMITH

Bonnie Frederick tried to get food stamps last year, but her $9.50-an-hour pay from a packaging company put her monthly income $3 over the limit.

But new guidelines, put in place July 27 by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, make Frederick, 61, of North Versailles and her husband Gary, 62, eligible for food stamps, they learned this week.

"I'm a couponer, and I cook. We don't eat out a lot," Bonnie Frederick said. "We eat a lot of chicken. It will be nice to have some pork."

The couple are among those who fall into the gap between working full time and receiving Social Security. Gary Frederick worked for Nabisco and then Atlantic Baking in East Liberty but lost his job when the plant closed in 2004. He has held part-time jobs, but they get by on her salary and have dipped into savings.

The Fredericks and others like them are being urged to reapply under the changed guidelines that were designed to open the food stamp program to more needy Pennsylvanians. It is the first time in nearly 30 years that Pennsylvania has raised income limits.

"People have been excruciatingly borderline," Esther Bush, president of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, said of those applying for food stamps. "We've seen a tremendous increase in people asking for (emergency) food."

More than 230,000 people receive food stamps in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Fayette, Beaver, Washington and Greene counties. The Welfare Department isn't sure how many more will become eligible under the new rules.

"While we believe the number applying will certainly be contingent on the state of the economy, our best estimate is that (new applicants) will not exceed 200,000 (statewide)," said spokeswoman Stacey Witalec.

The gross income limit for food stamps increased from 130 percent of the federal poverty line to 160 percent. That means under these guidelines, a family of four making as much as $33,924 a year is eligible. The limit was $27,564.

Rachel Meeks, food stamp campaign manager at the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, said Welfare Department officials expressed concern about raising the income limits. Pennsylvania took a cautious approach by upping the limits to 160 percent of the federal poverty line, not the 200 percent that federal rules allow.

"With the budget constraints we're under, it made sense to go halfway," she said.

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