The Sacramento Bee continues its look at blind employment.  This time the
blind vending job program is under the microscope.  A few vendors in
California earn six figures wile many vendors live in near poverty and
still receive disability benefits.

kelly



Sacramento Bee


URL: http://www.sacbee.com/ib/news/ib_news03_20010129.html


Vending job program draws chorus of critics


   By Melanie Payne
   Bee Staff Writer
   (Published Jan. 29, 2001)

   More than 65 years after it was approved by Congress, the federal act
   that established a program to recruit and train the blind to operate
   vending services in government buildings is coming under attack.

   Critics have argued that the Business Enterprise Program makes a few
   vendors wealthy while others scrape by and that it spends too much
   money to benefit too few blind people.

   According to the American Foundation for the Blind, the state
   Department of Rehabilitation spent about $8 million to $10 million in
   the last fiscal year on the program. The money goes toward recruiting
   and training vendors, helping them purchase inventory and other
   administrative costs.

   However, only nine new vendors were set up during that time, according
   to the American Foundation for the Blind. Seven vending locations
   closed.

   Others criticize the program as socialism for the blind.

   The BEP vendors own and operate snack stands, coffee bars, cafeterias
   and vending machine operations throughout the state.

                  Income distribution among blind vendors

           The 155 vendors in the Department of Rehabilitation's Business
       Enterprise Program averaged $37,059 in profits. But the statistics
     give a skewed picture of how those profits are earned. A few vendors
   are making nearly a quarter of a million dollars in the program, while
      the majority are making less than $30,000 a year. Those in business
                                      less than 11 months are not listed.
                                           Profit range Number of vendors
                                                           Less than $0 9
                                                            $0-$10,000 15
                                                       $10,000-$19,999 29
                                                       $20,000-$29,999 26
                                                       $30,000-$39,999 21
                                                       $40,000-$49,999 11
                                                       $50,000-$74,999 16
                                                        $75,000-$99,999 6
                                                      $100,000-$150,000 8
                                                      $150,000-$199,999 1
                                                          Over $200,000 3

   The vendors aren't really independent, critics say, but operate under
   a paternalistic program, a relic from the days when blind people had
   to be taken care of.

   Joni Patche, who is blind, used to be one of the naysayers.

   She had planned to be a college graduate and go on to a career as a
   translator. She remembers passing the blind vendors as she commuted on
   the subway in her hometown of Boston and feeling as if she could do
   better.

   Now Patche is one of the 155 vendors in California's BEP program.

   It's not welfare at all, Patche said. "It's hard work." No one would
   work this hard for welfare.

   Patche is at Joni's Java Junction, a snack bar and coffee shop located
   in the Department of Rehabilitation building in Sacramento, every
   weekday from 5:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

   Even on weekends, when the shop is closed, Patche comes in to check on
   things.

   She started in 1983 with $1,700 in inventory. She now has about
   $17,000 in inventory and several employees.

   Patche's husband, Paul, is also a BEP vendor with a snack bar in
   another state office building.

   Patche operates through incredible organization, employing some
   sighted employees and with the assistance of a consultant.

   The consultant helps her with displays and new ideas that might make
   her business more profitable.

   Employees will tell her if equipment needs to be cleaned, or something
   is amiss. Customers also help out, Patche said, telling her if an
   employee "looks scruffy."

   But for the most part, she's on her own, Patche said.

   "It's all consuming," she said. "If I want to take a vacation, I have
   to find someone to work for me."

   The shops are profitable, but it's not quite enough to meet the
   Patches' needs. They still receive disability payments that supplement
   the business income for the family of five.

   That too, however, is a criticism of the program.

   Vendors don't have the incentive that regular business owners have to
   turn a profit -- there's always supplemental disability from the
   government. But still, many vendors need it.

   Among the state's 155 BEP vendors, 14 made in excess of $100,000 in
   profits last year. But 53 vendors made less than $20,000.

   Erin Treadwell, the spokeswoman for the state Department of
   Rehabilitation, said she's heard the criticisms and in the past people
   have tried to revamp the program.

   But, she said, the minute that the department starts to tinker with
   the BEP program to make it more equitable or to make vendors more
   competitive, there's an uproar from the blind community.


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html