At the age of 17, Krae Wolf was like most teenage boys. He was a high school student, he had a steady girlfriend and he had a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant. But he also had a baby.
Wolf had met his girlfriend at Burger King where they both worked and where they continued to work after the birth of their son Jace. When Wolf turned 18, he began working at a higher-paying factory so his girlfriend could attend school. But they were still not making enough. To supplement their income, they turned to food stamps and WIC - a federal assistance program for low-income women and their children.
It is families like Wolf's that President Obama had in mind in 2008 when he pledged to end child hunger in the United States by 2015.
To help low-income parents feed their children, Obama outlined a plan calling for increased funding for assistance programs like WIC and food stamps. He also advocated improvements in the nutritional value of school-provided meals and more federal money to help students pay for them.
But Wolf, who is now 23 and a junior at Ball State University, said throwing money at the assistance programs will not fix their problems. Rather, he said how much money families receive is not an issue.
"We were always amazed by how much we got," he said. "I probably ate better on food stamps than I did growing up in my house."
Wolf said he believes the problem is management.
"I had the opinion that it should be regulated more," he said. He said there should be measures to stop people from abusing the system by selling the food stamps or by refusing to work.
Linda Gossert, a human resources consultant for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, agrees that more money is pointless without better management. The stimulus package passed in February provided $20 billion in aid for the food stamp program, but Gossert said the aid was misguided.
"They didn't change the allotment of eligible households with the stimulus package," she said. "They just gave existing households more benefits. I think that's a problem."
Gossert, whose job is to interpret food stamp policy, said to truly improve the program, the goal should not simply be more money, but to ensure that more families are eligible and that the program is easier to navigate.
"There's a lot of paperwork that needs to be turned in - especially in the medical arena," she said. "Only the elderly and disabled are allowed to deduct their medical costs. Everyone should get deductions for medical care."
The plan to overhaul school meals has also fallen short of expectations. Joanne Baierwalter, the director of food service for Muncie Community Schools, said there have been no changes to their program since Obama took office.
Under the current guidelines of the National School Lunch Program, Muncie Community Schools are required to offer protein, fruits, vegetables and milk at each meal. However, Baierwalter stressed it is only a requirement that these foods are made available.
"Students may pick up all the items or they can refuse one item at breakfast and two items at lunch," she said. "We of course encourage children to pick up all five so they have a variety of foods from all the food groups."
Baierwalter also said there have been setbacks in making school lunches more affordable. Under the standing reduced lunch program, families pay 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch.
"Many families cannot afford the 70 cents per day, so it was recommended to eliminate that category and make them all free," she said. "I don't remember how far the legislation got, but it was voted down."
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