Nearly 15 Percent of U.S. Receives Food Stamps
EmailThe number of poor Americans seeking food stamps has risen sharply to nearly 15 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal report produced with data from the Department of Agriculture.
According to the Journal, the number of Americans seeking assistance through the program formerly known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has increased by more than 8.1 percent to a whopping total of 45.8 million. The one bright spot is that the pace of growth is declining, according to the Journal.
Last year, Households that received food stamps in had a median household income of $17,912, compared with the national median of $50,046, according to the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, a policy and research organization. The same year the number of families receiving food stamps increased four percentage points since the great recession kicked off in 2007, according to the nonprofit organization.
Things are tough for many people across the nation.
States in the Southeast tend to fare worse than in other areas of the country, with some of the largest percentages of people on food stamps, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In Georgia, 1.8 million people received food stamps.
One of the states hit hardest by the economic climate is Mississippi, where more than 20 percent of the residents receive food stamps, according to the Department of Agriculture, as reported in the WSJ. In four other states, one in five residents receives food stamps from the government, according to the report. Those states are New Mexico, Tennessee, Oregon and Louisiana.
Hardest Hit States
- Mississippi, 21.5%
- New Mexico, 20.7%
- Oregon, 20.6%
- Tennessee, 20.2%
- Louisiana, 19.9%
An interactive map provided by the Wall Street Journal can be found on the Website.
Memorial Day Deals 
Man Charged in Deposit Error Spending Spree 
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
I was checking out at WalMart the other day and was paying with a debit card. When I swiped my card, one of the choices was EBT.
Credit, debit, EB
Government makes it easy.
And while I am on the subject of entitlements, could someone explain to me why there are an exorbitant amount of expensive cars sitting in the parking lots of government housing?
Forget who paid for the cars, who pays the insurance and taxes?
Posted by: 2012centrist | November 3, 2011, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm
Georgia, 1.8 million people received food stamps and all you can to is make some less then smart a@# comment. Bravo for you, next time you go to Walmart maybe you could pick up something for a food drive in your town. What is the saying what go’s around comes around.
Posted by: Nevada guy | November 3, 2011, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
Nevada,
I live well below the poverty level. I can barely afford to feed myself. It is my own responsibility to change that. I have never taken a government handout and I never will.
That’s just what my parents taught me (growing up, they both worked in the cotton/tobacco fields for pennies a day) My Dad was given a choice by his Dad when he turned 18; A new car or his first year of college paid for. He chose the year of college, graduated, joined the Navy became a Lt Commander ,started his own business….without anyone giving him anything he did not earn.
We all have a very different idea of the way to live based on our own life experiences..
All that said, I would share any food I have with someone worthy.
Posted by: 2012centrist | November 3, 2011, 4:04 pm 4:04 pm
Forgot to add, My Dad paid for the rest of his college himself.
Posted by: 2012centrist | November 3, 2011, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
I wish the goverent could regulate what you can buy with food stamps. I work in a retail store and see people buy all this junk food with thier EBT cards. And buying Ciggarettes too. Is that right? The parents give thier kids the card and give them free acess to buy whatever they want. Makes me sad
Posted by: Melissa | November 3, 2011, 4:27 pm 4:27 pm
I’m surprised it’s not higher.
I’m on Food Stamps and getting $84/month. I am also on unemployment [10 mos. now], pay a monthly bankruptcy payment as well as all my own rent, utilities, insurances[except health] and live alone so have no one else to assist me. I was able to get some discounted food through “Angel Ministries”, but they had to close down due to bankruptcy as well. Can anyone tell me how we are to survive on $20/wk for groceries? When I get my food stamps, I go to the store and purchase meats, cheese and milk & butter, cereal, coffee, soup and that takes the whole $84. After that, I have to choose between gas in my car or food for the rest of the month. Oh, I have plenty of soup for the month, but gets kinda boring after awhile.
I’ve been trying very hard to get a job, but at 61 it seems that I have not stayed up to date with some of the newer software so I’m a little slow to learn it. [was hired in August only to be let go 11 days later because I was taking too long to learn their program]
I have worked all my life, raised 4 children [a lot of the time on my own] and don’t like taking handouts either, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Besides, after working all that time, I paid into the system and should be able to use it when needed.
Thanks for listening……….
Posted by: Barbara | November 3, 2011, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
There is a typo in this article. “Food Stamps” is FORMALLY known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, not formerly. WSJ has the correct information, ABC does not.
Posted by: Eric Olson | November 4, 2011, 10:05 am 10:05 am
I agree with Barbara. If she paid into the system her entire life, she should get help when she needs it. It is the people who never pay in or don’t want to work I resent getting free handouts. The working poor too should get help. I too was unemployed but I was young. I needed help to feed my two young children for 2 months after being laid off and before I found my next job. I couldn’t get it since I got $300 in child support which only helped with my rent. I had paid into the system for years and knew I would for the next 30 years. I needed help for two months and couldn’t get it. The system is broken.
Posted by: ann | November 6, 2011, 8:27 am 8:27 am
This society is headed for bad times. 15% of the population supported by the productive 85%? Every society needs a program that helps people get back on their feet. But that same program must have limits. When will this number stop rising? Why should people get off food stamps when they don’t have to? How long do the productive independents have to support the idle?
Each person collecting welfare is a person not contributing to the nations GDP, but also leaching off of the productive. That can only go so far before the system collapses to either revolution or communism.
The time to act is now.
Posted by: John | November 9, 2011, 3:15 pm 3:15 pm
As a former white collared worker in finance, I never thought I’d be on any type of public assistance. But, at the age of 26, I came down with a very serious virus that compromised my immune system. For the past 17 years, now at 43, I live with flu-like symptoms nearly every day of my life. And there is no cure for my condition.
It was hard for me to accept Social Security, food stamps, energy assistance, etc., until my family made me realize that I have paid into the system just like an insurance benefit. Therefore, I’m entitled to these benefits. Just as someone who has a car accident is entitled to their payouts.
And as far as people who have never worked getting benefits, that’s just not true. I spent a lot of time sitting in the waiting rooms for my benefits and learned that these young people are not getting “free rides”. They are required to work unless a disability prevents them from it. Many just don’t have the skills to get the few jobs my community offers. So, it’s not all their fault.
The system doesn’t help them gain or keep employment.
Posted by: Wil | November 11, 2011, 10:09 pm 10:09 pm