One in nine Americans uses food stamps

One in nine Americans relied on food stamps in May, the highest proportion ever, according to recently released data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). In all, 34.4 million people used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a federal program that provides assistance to low-income people, an increase of more than 2 percent from the previous month, and a staggering increase of 6 million over the past year.

May’s increase was the sixth consecutive month that set a new record in food stamp use. Government food assistance increased in every state, with Florida registering the sharpest gain at 4.2 percent.

The year-over-year percentage increase in food stamp use is more striking, with 13 states, representing every region of the country, registering a spike of more than 25 percent. These were Utah (45.5 percent), Nevada (39 percent), Idaho (36.3 percent), Washington (34.5 percent), Florida (34.2 percent), Vermont (33.6 percent), Wisconsin (31.3 percent), Arizona (29.7 percent), Colorado (28.9 percent), Georgia (28.3 percent), Maryland (27.2 percent), Massachusetts (25.3 percent), and Oregon (25 percent).

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/food-a20.shtml

lost my PT backup job in January and have been back on cash aid & foodstamps ever since...

single mom of 3 and been struggling on & off aid for years now. can't seem to break through whatever barrier my lack of education and a small rural job market holds.

hopefully things will be turning around soon...I'm up for a community editor position at the local newspaper.

cross your fingers! I should hear about interviews this week!

For 8 months I only ate because of food stamps and the generosity of friends. :(

I now have income only because I had private long term disability insurance and it finally came through. Without it, if I had to depend on the public safety net, I would be penniless and destitute right now. All the safety nets have huge tattered holes in them.

I hope your situation improves soon. :hug:

I hope the economy improves very soon in ways that really affect real poor and lower middle class people in real ways.

So far all the improvements have been ones that only affect corporations and investors. What the hell good does that do the rest of us?

They're the ones that sent the jobs away to foreign countries, and they're the ones that slashed benefits and hours of their employees when the incomes of the elite were skyrocketing, and they were the ones who laid off tens of thousands with the swipe of a pen. Their wealth imposes upon them certain responsibilities to the society that made them wealthy, and they should be made to honor those responsibilities.

to actually pay to support society based on a really progressive tax structure. Too much of our tax structure is regressive. And too much of our tax structure is loop holes and exceptions to shield the income of the wealthy. The wealthy proposed every loophole and exemption they wanted, and seem to have gotten them.

Let's put the tax rates back where they were before Regan took office, and close the tax shelters and loop holes. Let's raise or eliminate the tax ceiling on the taxes deducted from paychecks.

They're really hoping you'll let them have titles.

However I can't agree that they are the ones solely reponsible for jobs going overseas. Most of that is consumer driven. So long as people have a Wal-Mart mentality that the only thing that matters is lower costs, manufacturing jobs will continue to move to cheaper labor markets.

:kick:

Could be true. Might not be true. But the allegation of this fact on a site like WSWS is basically no evidence of its truth or falsity.

There is almost no correlation between what is alleged on WSWS and reality.

nt

"according to recently released data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)."

it's from the same source as msm reports this week about the record-breaking number of folks on food stamps.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE57569720090806

he's just on a campaign to snark every one of my posts.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34SNAPmonthly.htm

The most recent available report on participation rate through 2007 also shows that through 2007 only about two thirds of the 39 million then eligible actually participated. Even if one were to believe that all of the recent upsurge was a testament to magically improved outreach that doesn't change the fact that we have the highest number of participants ever in this program.

As so eloquently put by ThomCat: all our safety nets are tattered and full of holes.

It's not about welfare reform or healthcare reform, it IS a civil rights issue. I hate the concept that if we had more welfare or assistance that people would be content to sit on their collective asses and suck it up while the rest of the productive members of society work hard....
Most of the people I know who have to rely on these programs for survival of themselves (AND their kids) are movers and shakers...always trying to get a leg up. Unfortunately the system is so broken and the corpratacracy is so enmeshed that those of us on the bottom have a very low chance to ever make it to a place of REAL self-sustaining lifestyle.
Even when you are off the system, you then become even MORE of a ghost - "the working poor" - who scrap for $8-$10 an hour to never have anything resembling savings and the slightest emergency can throw you back into the pit of abject poverty. (car breakdown, health issue, family member dies, etc...)

and let's not forget that the AMOUNT of foodstamps you recieve is calculated by the size of your family... and ANY other cash you may get (child support, etc) counts against you. By "giving with one hand and taking with another," it prevents any movement toward sustainable self reliance. I get $350 a month for my family of four - 3 kids, one of which is a teen and eats EVERYTHING in sight ! I never realized how much we relied on the free lunch program at school!
And then people talk smack because you buy cheap mac&cheese - even when budgeting, how am I supposed to buy all organic or health conscious foods? the cost for the 'healthy' foods is so crazy high, I'd be broke in a week, 2 tops.

like a spiraling argument... poverty equals limited choices, equals more health problems, equals more need for assistance, and the loop continues for generations...

I pray that my kids will be able to make a life for themselves free from the spiral