By Maureen Cavanaugh, Joanne Faryon,
Patty Lane and Claire Trageser
Five out of six calls to a county hotline designed to help residents access food stamps and other benefits are dropped, according to an inTelegy report first publicized in U-T San Diego.
The report, commissioned by the county, also found that those callers who do make it through wait an average of 30 minutes before speaking to someone and that 350,000 calls a month are not answered by Health and Human Services employees.
Bill Oswald, chair of Caring Council, and Joni Halpern, director of Supportive Parents Information Network, spoke to KPBS. They said the report has confirmed what they have long been saying: the county’s food stamp program needs a lot of improvement.