Mayor Announces Date After Wallace Authorizes Plan's Extension to Borough SALES INCREASE EXPECTED Officials Say Both Grocers and Needy Will Benefit--Total May Be $8,000,000 Surplus
New York Times
New York, N.Y..
28 June 1940.
Distribution of food stamps to Brooklyn home-relief families will begin Sept. 1, Mayor La Guardia announced yesterday.
His statement was made after Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace had authorized extension of the stamp plan to Brooklyn and had indicated that other boroughs might be included later.
Confident that the new system of distributing surplus foodstuffs would increase retail sales by at least $6,000,000 a year, representatives of 25,000 Brooklyn grocers pledged their cooperation in its administration.
Banking interests also promised to facilitate the program by cashing the stamps for grocers without any handling charge, according to John A. Mcauliffe, program organizer for the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation.
Virtually all of the 120,000 persons on home relief in Brooklyn will be eligible to share the benefits of the stamp system.
Although participation is voluntary, Welfare Commissioner William Hodson predicted that 98 per cent of the relief recipients would elect to take part in their relief allowance in stamps within three months after the program got under way.
If a family wishes to enroll for food stamps, it will have $1 deducted from the semi-monthly relief check for each member of the family. In return, the individual will receive orange stamps with a face value of $1, redeemable at any food store for any type of commodity, and blue stamps with a face value of $1.50, redeemable only for commodities designated as surplus by the FSCC.
Surplus Foods Are Listed
The current list of surplus foods includes butter, eggs, raisins, lard and other pork products, dried prunes, corn meal, oranges, peas, cabbage, hominy grits, dried beans and wheat and graham flour.
At present Brooklyn relief clients receive surplus foods through twenty-three special depots. By September, twelve of these will close.
The others will remain open to serve persons whose need has been certified by private welfare agencies or whose home relief allowance is less than $6 a month.
Under the plan worked out by the Mayor and the FSCC, the city will distribute stamp books to relief recipients in the same envelopes that is used for relief checks.
This will eliminate the practice adopted in most cities of opening special offices at which stamps are sold. The Mayor estimated that the reduction in operating costs under the new plan would total about $500,000 annually.
Here is the transcription of the article text from the images you provided. He said the "interaction of the stamp program would provide a much wider variety of food products" for those on relief and "would enable them to get their surplus foods at the retail grocery stores through the normal channels of trade, just as they get their regular food supplies." "Every grocery store in Brooklyn is authorized to accept the stamps in trade and for surplus commodities," the Mayor declared.
"This will be a great advantage to the families and a distinct advantage to the grocers, who will benefit to a substantial extent under the new plan."
Commissioner Hodson, who said the depot system of giving out surplus crops had made him "the biggest distributor of groceries in the country," declared he would be happy to "get out of the grocery business."
Stamps May Exceed $5,000,000
If Mr. Hodson's forecast of 98 per cent participation is realized, the purchasing of orange stamps in the first year of the Brooklyn experiment would exceed $5,000,000.
This would entitle those on relief to an "dividend" of $2,500,000 in blue stamps for the purchase of surplus items. Under the depot system, the estimated retail value of surplus foods distributed in Brooklyn has been about $2,000,000 a year.
Extension of the program to the entire city would affect a total of 550,000 persons on relief. Other groups that might be embraced in the program to increase consumption include 300,000 persons in WPA families, 52,000 receiving old age assistance, 2,000 needy blind persons and 73,000 mothers and children dependent on the Board of Child Welfare.
The success of the Brooklyn test and the availability of funds will determine the national scope of the stamp plan here, Secretary Wallace indicated last Monday.
As a precaution against "chiseling" when the program does go into effect, the FSCC will carry on an educational program in cooperation with the Welfare Department and with Brooklyn's grocers' associations. Penalties ranging up to $10,000 fine and ten years' imprisonment are provided for fraudulent practices, Federal officials warned.
Assurances that grocers were eager to assist in making the stamp experiment a success were given to Mr. McAuliffe yesterday at a conference in the offices of the United Retail Grocers Association, at 118 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn.
A steering committee, headed by Conrad W. Frey, chairman of the Greater New York Retail Grocers Conference, was set up, with Fred. Larsen, treasurer of Thomas Roulston & Co., Inc., treasurer, and Max Feldstein, executive secretary of the Julian Goldman Stores Association of Greater New York, as secretary.
Mr. Feldstein said the grocers were "all for the plan" and that the associations expected all 25,000 stores to sign up for inclusion in the program. A mass meeting of which all retail food merchants will be invited will be called by the committee in two or three weeks, he announced.
All food to be sold for orange or blue stamps, including articles designated as surplus, will be bought by the retailer in the customary manner from his wholesaler or jobber, Mr. Feldstein said. He predicted that the rise in retail trade as a result of the plan would be between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000 next year.
At the FSCC offices at 90 Church Street, Mr. McAuliffe said all the food stamps would be in 25-cent denominations. They will be sold to the Welfare Department for transmission to those on the relief rolls in books containing orange stamps with a face value of $2, $3, $4, $5, $6 and $10. Each book will contain blue stamps to half the value of the orange stamps.
Grocers who get the stamps in exchange for merchandise will paste them on cards and turn them in at their banks for deposit without any handling or discount for Mr. McAuliffe said. The full responsibility for policing the program will rest with the Federal agency. An investigating staff of ten or twelve persons will be on hand when distribution of the stamps begins to check on any abuses that may arise, the FSCC official announced.
Mechanical and administrative problems involved in putting the program into operation will make it impossible to start mailing stamps before September, according to Commissioner Hodson. He said application blanks had to be sent to the Brooklyn relief families, after which administrative visitors would have to talk to many of them personally and clarify points that puzzled them.
When the lists were drawn up, the accounting division would require two weeks in which to make the necessary adjustments in its check-issuance procedures, the commissioner explained.
An illustration of the way the plan will work was given by Mayor La Guardia after conferring with Mr. Hodson at Summer City Hall. He said: "The free stamp will take the place of direct distribution of surplus commodities.
To be specific, if a relief family is now receiving a $30 relief check on a semi-monthly basis, and if this family would be entitled to receive $10 in food stamps, under the proposed plan the check would be for $20 with a book of orange stamps in the amount of $10 and a book of blue stamps in the amount of $5.
The check and the stamps would all be delivered together in the same envelope. There would thus be no reduction in present relief grants, but an additional purchasing power of 50 cents for every $1 of food stamps purchased."
Hezakya Newz & Films
(1940) FOOD STAMPS READY IN BROOKLYN SEPT. 1
Mayor Announces Date After Wallace Authorizes Plan's Extension to Borough SALES INCREASE EXPECTED Officials Say Both Grocers and Needy Will Benefit--Total May Be $8,000,000 Surplus
New York Times
New York, N.Y..
28 June 1940.
Distribution of food stamps to Brooklyn home-relief families will begin Sept. 1, Mayor La Guardia announced yesterday.
His statement was made after Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace had authorized extension of the stamp plan to Brooklyn and had indicated that other boroughs might be included later.
Confident that the new system of distributing surplus foodstuffs would increase retail sales by at least $6,000,000 a year, representatives of 25,000 Brooklyn grocers pledged their cooperation in its administration.
Banking interests also promised to facilitate the program by cashing the stamps for grocers without any handling charge, according to John A. Mcauliffe, program organizer for the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation.
Virtually all of the 120,000 persons on home relief in Brooklyn will be eligible to share the benefits of the stamp system.
Although participation is voluntary, Welfare Commissioner William Hodson predicted that 98 per cent of the relief recipients would elect to take part in their relief allowance in stamps within three months after the program got under way.
If a family wishes to enroll for food stamps, it will have $1 deducted from the semi-monthly relief check for each member of the family. In return, the individual will receive orange stamps with a face value of $1, redeemable at any food store for any type of commodity, and blue stamps with a face value of $1.50, redeemable only for commodities designated as surplus by the FSCC.
Surplus Foods Are Listed
The current list of surplus foods includes butter, eggs, raisins, lard and other pork products, dried prunes, corn meal, oranges, peas, cabbage, hominy grits, dried beans and wheat and graham flour.
At present Brooklyn relief clients receive surplus foods through twenty-three special depots. By September, twelve of these will close.
The others will remain open to serve persons whose need has been certified by private welfare agencies or whose home relief allowance is less than $6 a month.
Under the plan worked out by the Mayor and the FSCC, the city will distribute stamp books to relief recipients in the same envelopes that is used for relief checks.
This will eliminate the practice adopted in most cities of opening special offices at which stamps are sold. The Mayor estimated that the reduction in operating costs under the new plan would total about $500,000 annually.
Here is the transcription of the article text from the images you provided.
He said the "interaction of the stamp program would provide a much wider variety of food products" for those on relief and "would enable them to get their surplus foods at the retail grocery stores through the normal channels of trade, just as they get their regular food supplies."
"Every grocery store in Brooklyn is authorized to accept the stamps in trade and for surplus commodities," the Mayor declared.
"This will be a great advantage to the families and a distinct advantage to the grocers, who will benefit to a substantial extent under the new plan."
Commissioner Hodson, who said the depot system of giving out surplus crops had made him "the biggest distributor of groceries in the country," declared he would be happy to "get out of the grocery business."
Stamps May Exceed $5,000,000
If Mr. Hodson's forecast of 98 per cent participation is realized, the purchasing of orange stamps in the first year of the Brooklyn experiment would exceed $5,000,000.
This would entitle those on relief to an "dividend" of $2,500,000 in blue stamps for the purchase of surplus items. Under the depot system, the estimated retail value of surplus foods distributed in Brooklyn has been about $2,000,000 a year.
Extension of the program to the entire city would affect a total of 550,000 persons on relief. Other groups that might be embraced in the program to increase consumption include 300,000 persons in WPA families, 52,000 receiving old age assistance, 2,000 needy blind persons and 73,000 mothers and children dependent on the Board of Child Welfare.
The success of the Brooklyn test and the availability of funds will determine the national scope of the stamp plan here, Secretary Wallace indicated last Monday.
As a precaution against "chiseling" when the program does go into effect, the FSCC will carry on an educational program in cooperation with the Welfare Department and with Brooklyn's grocers' associations. Penalties ranging up to $10,000 fine and ten years' imprisonment are provided for fraudulent practices, Federal officials warned.
Assurances that grocers were eager to assist in making the stamp experiment a success were given to Mr. McAuliffe yesterday at a conference in the offices of the United Retail Grocers Association, at 118 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn.
A steering committee, headed by Conrad W. Frey, chairman of the Greater New York Retail Grocers Conference, was set up, with Fred. Larsen, treasurer of Thomas Roulston & Co., Inc., treasurer, and Max Feldstein, executive secretary of the Julian Goldman Stores Association of Greater New York, as secretary.
Mr. Feldstein said the grocers were "all for the plan" and that the associations expected all 25,000 stores to sign up for inclusion in the program. A mass meeting of which all retail food merchants will be invited will be called by the committee in two or three weeks, he announced.
All food to be sold for orange or blue stamps, including articles designated as surplus, will be bought by the retailer in the customary manner from his wholesaler or jobber, Mr. Feldstein said. He predicted that the rise in retail trade as a result of the plan would be between $6,000,000 and $7,000,000 next year.
At the FSCC offices at 90 Church Street, Mr. McAuliffe said all the food stamps would be in 25-cent denominations. They will be sold to the Welfare Department for transmission to those on the relief rolls in books containing orange stamps with a face value of $2, $3, $4, $5, $6 and $10. Each book will contain blue stamps to half the value of the orange stamps.
Grocers who get the stamps in exchange for merchandise will paste them on cards and turn them in at their banks for deposit without any handling or discount for Mr. McAuliffe said.
The full responsibility for policing the program will rest with the Federal agency. An investigating staff of ten or twelve persons will be on hand when distribution of the stamps begins to check on any abuses that may arise, the FSCC official announced.
Mechanical and administrative problems involved in putting the program into operation will make it impossible to start mailing stamps before September, according to Commissioner Hodson. He said application blanks had to be sent to the Brooklyn relief families, after which administrative visitors would have to talk to many of them personally and clarify points that puzzled them.
When the lists were drawn up, the accounting division would require two weeks in which to make the necessary adjustments in its check-issuance procedures, the commissioner explained.
An illustration of the way the plan will work was given by Mayor La Guardia after conferring with Mr. Hodson at Summer City Hall. He said:
"The free stamp will take the place of direct distribution of surplus commodities.
To be specific, if a relief family is now receiving a $30 relief check on a semi-monthly basis, and if this family would be entitled to receive $10 in food stamps, under the proposed plan the check would be for $20 with a book of orange stamps in the amount of $10 and a book of blue stamps in the amount of $5.
The check and the stamps would all be delivered together in the same envelope. There would thus be no reduction in present relief grants, but an additional purchasing power of 50 cents for every $1 of food stamps purchased."
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