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NAP: Over 100K applicants OK’d in 2014
The local food stamp program, Nutrition Assistance Program, served a total of 100,295 applications last year, according to NAP administrator Walter Macaranas.
In an email to Saipan Tribune, Macaranas said NAP served a monthly average of 8,358 clients on Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and the Northern Islands last year.
Based on NAP data, about 92,199 applications were approved on Saipan; 4,201 on Tinian; 104 on the Northern Islands; and 3,791 on Rota.
Most of the approved applications were in January 2014 totaling 8,494.
Last year’s total of 100,295 is a decrease compared to 2013, which saw 109,511 applicants and a monthly average of 9,126 applications.
In 2013 about 3,923 applications were approved on Rota; 68 on Northern Islands; 4,307 on Tinian; and 101,213 on Saipan.
Macaranas said a total of 332 applications were denied last year and 400 back in 2013. This was due to the lack of required documents or the applicants were not eligible for the program.
The decline in the number of NAP applicants last year is being attributed to the minimum wage increases, among other things.
Federal funding for the NAP has been on the rise since 2009. Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) set the goal of “equal treatment” for needy families in the CNMI when he was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In April that year, he was able to convince Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to increase the food assistance grant to the Commonwealth by 13 percent, and later boosted the annual grant to the current $12.148 million.
