1. Food Stamp Participation: Still Rising

    Posted by Michael • October 7, 2010

    Here’s a shocker: U.S. food-stamp participation (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) is still rising.

    Per Bloomberg, roughly one in eight Americans will participate in the program during the upcoming fiscal year.

    Chart source data here and here. Ugly spreadsheet here.

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    Food Stamp Participation: Still Rising
    Filed In: In the News, Poverty, Statistics

    2. 3 Responses to "Food Stamp Participation: Still Rising" ...

    1. On October 7, 2010 @ 3:43 pm,
      Elizabeth Ferryman wrote:
      #1
       



      With the current economic downturn, there are naturally more indivduals and families needing food stamps. Also as the boomers age some become diabled, unable to work and poor. This was how I came to quailify for food stamps at age 49, right after my husband left with our three children and sued for divorce. I think he feared my medical bills. I applied for and got Disability and SSI because his income no longer counted. A year later he had a heart attack, his factory closed and he lost the house he was buying in the bankruptcy he went through alone. He included my unpaid spousal support so I had to move to subsidized housing. He has remarried and is doing well finacically with her help. I’m stuck in poverty awaiting my eleventh surgery and have little hope of ever recovering my health. My food stamps-$34.00 a month haven’t increased since 2008 despite tne increase in food (and medication) costs. I’m now trying food pantries but they have too many high sodium and low fiber foods to be good choices for my health.
      Medicaid often won’t pay for what my doctors prescribe anymore so sometimes those prescriptions go unfilled (for months). Anything “over-the-counter” or “not medically necessary” as written by that doctor is not paid for by Medicaid so my health problems worsen until I’m back in the hospital. I’m angry, hurting and a wasted resource as I have a Master’s in Library Science and an undergrad in Elem. Edu.

       

       

    2. On October 7, 2010 @ 5:57 pm,
      Carol@inthetrenches wrote:
      #2
       



      The comment above shows there is a real and valid need for the food stamp program. However, as more and more people come to rely on the program I think that there should be a major push in setting time limits and education for low cost food preparation and production. The benefits cannot afford to continue forever and people need to be prepared to go off of them.

       

       

    3. On October 7, 2010 @ 10:32 pm,
      Michael wrote:
      #3
       



      Everything I need to know about food stamps, I learned working in a small grocery store in the, uh, more “historic” part of my hometown. High-school Me learned very quickly that the food-stamp system was a disaster, and rife with abuse. (Then again, name a government program that isn’t. Weird how that works.)

      More recently, this post conveyed a lot of my thoughts, too.

       

       

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