The Pentagon Isn’t Tracking How Many Military Families Go Hungry

[rangerrebew]

The Pentagon Isn’t Tracking How Many Military Families Go Hungry
By Amy Bushatz, Military.com
on July 23, 2016
 
DoD officials have incomplete information on how many military families are using food assistance programs, a new report finds.

Defense Department officials have incomplete information on how many military families are using food assistance programs because the department doesn’t completely track the data or work with other departments to do so, a new report from the Government Accountability Office finds.

While some data exist on how many service members use programs such as food stamps, known as SNAP, or the Women and Infant Children (WIC) program, which are both controlled by the Department of Agriculture, the Pentagon only loosely tracks the programs it administers, the report says. Additionally, no single office at the DoD is in charge of food assistance tracking, it says.

http://taskandpurpose.com/pentagon-isnt-tracking-many-military-families-go-hungry/

[txradioguy]

They used to keep track.  I was a young soldier when this was a scandal during the Clinton years.

I honestly think the DoD and the Administration don't care and don't want to know.

[EC]

Wait - you don't have Regimental Services?

[txradioguy]

Wait - you don't have Regimental Services?

Not sure if we have what you're describing...in the Brit forces...what are REgimental Services?

[EC]

It's an adjunct duty for every officer and noncom in the regiment. Each regiment has a dedicated phone number which is manned 24 hours a day, and the number is known to the dependents of every soldier in the regiment. When the actual soldier is abroad, their family members can call at any time with any problem, from legal problems to babysitting crisies to blocked toilets and we'll sort it out or try to. Sometimes it means taking money from the general fund (which is funded, supported and maintained by mostly retirees), sometimes it means picking a couple of squaddies to load up and pay a visit.

For barracks soldiers, they go through the chaplain but the same net exists.

Once a soldier retires, they'll get a call every 6 months or so to make sure they're OK (and, if they are doing well for themselves, to remind them that the fund exists  )

[txradioguy]

It's an adjunct duty for every officer and noncom in the regiment. Each regiment has a dedicated phone number which is manned 24 hours a day, and the number is known to the dependents of every soldier in the regiment. When the actual soldier is abroad, their family members can call at any time with any problem, from legal problems to babysitting crisies to blocked toilets and we'll sort it out or try to. Sometimes it means taking money from the general fund (which is funded, supported and maintained by mostly retirees), sometimes it means picking a couple of squaddies to load up and pay a visit.

For barracks soldiers, they go through the chaplain but the same net exists.

Once a soldier retires, they'll get a call every 6 months or so to make sure they're OK (and, if they are doing well for themselves, to remind them that the fund exists  )

Ahh ok tracking now.  Yes we have similar services.  Army Community Services, Army Emergency Relief lending closets things like that.  Each company sized unit and up has what's called a Family Readiness Group for help with family issues when a soldier is deployed.

But that stuff only goes so far and it doesn't cover things like what the OP is talking about.

In the past..under Bill Clinton we had soldiers who were so strapped for money to provide for their families they were applying for...qualifying for and receiving welfare assistance.  Not just normal things like WIC (which I have used when my kids were babies)...but full on food stamps and IIRC housing assistance because an E-3 or an E-4 with a couple of kids and a wife wasn't making enough in 1994 to provide for his family.

Wish our system worked like that...instead of a retiree getting checked up on by their mates every 6 months...our retirees get sent to the VA.  :nometalk: