Food Stamp Use Nears Record!

There are many factors that lead to Americans using food stamps. Those include job loss and the rise of food and fuel prices. In the upcoming year, it is projected that 28 million people will use food stamps. The number of recipients, who must have near-poverty incomes to qualify for benefits averaging $100 a month per family member, has fluctuated over the years along with economic conditions, eligibility rules, enlistment drives and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which led to a spike in the South. The percentage of Americans receiving food stamps was higher after a recession in the 1990s, but actual numbers are expected to be higher this year. Federal benefit costs are projected to rise to $36 billion in the 2009 fiscal year from $34 billion this year. “People sign up for food stamps when they lose their jobs, or their wages go down because their hours are cut,” said Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, who noted that 14 states saw their rolls reach record numbers by last December. “Our caseload has more than doubled since 2000, and we’re at an all-time record level,” said Maureen Sorbet, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Human Services. Nutrition and poverty experts praise food stamps as a vital safety net that helped eliminate the severe malnutrition seen in the country as recently as the 1960s. But they also express concern about what they called the gradual erosion of their value.

This can be compared to the 1960's. Today, the food stamp use numbers have reached an all-time high since the aid program began in the 1960's.