High unemployment, family size and the economy are all factors that contributed to the rise in food stamp use in the US.
Washington, Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, California, and Arizona, all had more than 1 million people enrolled. New York and Florida had more than 2 million on food stamps, while California, a state with an insurmountable budget crisis, assisted more than 3.4 million people with food stamps.
Every state in the nation has more than 6.5 percent of its population on food stamps. Overall, 14 percent of people in the country use food stamps. An article published by CNN says that percentage translates to 1 in 7 Americans or 43 million of the 308.7 million in the U.S. using food stamps to help feed their households.
More than 20 percent of households in Washington, DC and Mississippi are assisted by the food stamps program. DC is the highest on the list with 21.5 percent of residents on the food stamp program. A blog in the Wall Street Journal neatly charts the states and the number and percentages of food stamp recipients as determined by USDA figures.
The federal poverty guidelines that regulate the distribution of federal assistance are uniform throughout the country with the exception of Alaska, DC and Hawaii. Families of four are at 100 percent of poverty if their annual household income is less than $22,050 a year. People do not have to be on welfare to receive food stamps because eligibility is based on household income, bank assets, and the number of people in the home.
Compared to last year, there are 16.2 percent more families in the United states receiving federal aid for food. The official name of the food stamp assistance program was changed by Congress in 2008 and is currently titled the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.
CNN reports that the average SNAP recipient gets $133 a month in food stamps and that amount varies from state to state. Each state has an online web program to apply for benefits and almost half the states have a benefits calculator to help determine the amount of benefits that individual may qualify.
Wyoming and Colorado have the lowest percentages of food stamp recipients in the nation. 8.5 percent use food stamps in Colorado and 6.5 percent, the lowest in the nation, use food stamps in Wyoming.
In large states like New York and Florida where the food stamp rolls are highest, analysts say that the economy and high unemployment has forced people into receiving state assistance. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported a plan that would eliminate food stamp recipients from purchasing soda or sugary drinks with food stamps.
We are reaping the "benefits" of the Bush era economic policy --- high unemployment .. more and more people on welfare and public assistance ... housing market stalled
and the Republicans and the Nattering Nayboobs of Negativity want to take us back to those "good old days" ...actually .. I think the GOP won't be happy until we are back in the Middle Ages and they are the nobility and everyone else are serfs.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported a plan that would eliminate food stamp recipients from purchasing soda or sugary drinks with food stamps.
Thank God the government isn't dictating what I can buy at the market.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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