FoodShare Modernization

What is FoodShare?

FoodShare, formerly known as Food Stamps, entitles the recipient to government help when they have little or no money for food. Eligible participants receive benefits on a QUEST card which functions like a debit card.

Applicants can apply online for FoodShare using ACCESS. Visit the Wisconsin Department of Health Services FoodShare website or the USDA website to learn more about FoodShare.

FoodShare applicants whose primary language is not English are encouraged to visit room 105 at Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center, 1220 W. Vliet Street in Milwaukee. Hunger Task Force staff speak Hmong and Spanish and can assist applicants during their interview and application process. Hunger Task Force has assisted over 7,000 applicants since opening in the summer of 2009. Applicants can still call the FoodShare hotline at 1-888-947-6583 for assistance.

Hunger Task Force demands the State:

• Reopen the Robles Center. Due to the state takeover at the beginning of January, Milwaukee County’s South Side office, the Robles Center, has been closed. Robles was the traditional application site for Spanish, Hmong and Lao speaking immigrants. Its closure presents significant challenges to those populations which attempt to secure benefits in a timely fashion. The State Department of Health Services has failed to outreach to and inform applicants for public assistance over the last six months of transition from County to State management of the FoodShare program. Sign our petition to reopen the Robles Center!!
• Immediately provide FoodShare benefits to all eligible backlogged cases. According to the USDA, each FoodShare dollar spent has a multiplying economic impact of $1.84 to the local economy. The first few months of the State takeover of FoodShare in Milwaukee County created a backlog of FoodShare benefits which Hunger Task Force approximates resulted in a loss of $21.5 million in federal funding from Milwaukee’s struggling economy. Backlogged cases violate a person’s FoodShare rights and hurt the local economy.
• Fully and appropriately staff community access points with sufficient computers and telephones so people can apply for and receive help on the same day. Milwaukeeans trying to secure food assistance are sometimes being forced to wait up to 100 days to get emergency food benefits. This is unacceptable.
• Create a long term plan that includes state and county cooperation for modernization of FoodShare to protect those who need it most in Milwaukee.