2012: Foodstamps Thanksgiving in America.

More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from The Sunlight Foundation. That's right. This Thanksgiving, 42.2 million Americans will be on food stamps, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp program, has increased 70% since 2007. And economists have warned that usage of food stamps won't go down until unemployment improves.

 One person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of a cup of coffee.

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Despite Record Level Poverty, Soaring Food Prices, Food Stamps on the Chopping Block.

Despite soaring food prices (double the core inflation rate), due mostly to excessive speculation because of a deregulated agricultural commodity derivatives markets; rapidly rising poverty rates, and steady unemployment numbers, Congress is calling for dramatic cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food stamp program, regardless of the fact that for every $1 spent on food stamps, $1.79 is made.

According to US Department of Agriculture, since December 2008, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has set records, every month, except one. August, 2011, the last month reported, was no exception, as it has set another record for the number of Americans - 45.8 million - receiving food stamps, a figure  1.1% higher than the previous month and 8.1% more than a year earlier, with Texas and California leading the pack.

Household participation in SNAP is climbing so steadily that it has far surpassed, even the peak reached after the fallout of hurricane Katrina.

"The slow economic strangulation of millions of middle-class Americans started long before the Great Recession, which merely exacerbated the “personal recession” that ordinary Americans had been suffering for years." -- Edward Luce in a Financial Times article.

Meanwhile, the incomes of the top 1 per cent have more than tripled.
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Food Stamps Stimulate the Economy.

In the New York Times article, Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades by Jason DeParle and Robert Gebloff last week, Greg Dawson (left) said he "considers himself lucky to still have work, as a night-shift electrician installing lights in a chain of grocery stores. He lives in the house he's building in Martinsville, Ohio, with his wife, Sheila, and their five children, and they get a $300 benefit through the food stamps program. "It's embarrassing," said Mr. Dawson, 29. "I always thought it was people trying to milk the system. But we just felt like we really needed the help right now."

Food stamp use soared under President George W. Bush, up more than 1/3 in the last two years, with some states reporting up to a 75-80% increase; an additional 10 million people have been added to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) bringing the total number to 36 ½ million. That's 20,000 new people added each day...one in eight Americans...one in four children depending on the US government for sustenance. An additional 15 million people could benefit because as of now, the food stamps program reaches only 2/3 of the people who are eligible.

The profile of individual on food stamps has changed. Its not just the chronically poor any more. The education and employment levels have risen showing a sharp increase of people applying who are further up the economic scale.

It's a complex formula for deciding who gets SNAP, but in a nutshell, eligibility ranges up to 130% of the poverty threshold. For a family of four, that's $22,000 per year which translates to about $26,000 per year to qualify for SNAP. A family of four would receive approximately $520 per family or $130 per person.

The cost of the entire program is share by local, state and federal funds, however food stamps in and of itself is an economic stimulus. Every $1 spent translates to $1.82 in economic activity. Not only is the dollar immediately spent because food is a necessity, that same dollar in turn helps to pay the salaries of the grocery clerks, the truckers who haul the food, and finally the farmers.

Links:

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

An interactive map of food stamp usage around the country

Snap To Market is the NY Farmers Market EBT/Food Stamp/SNAP program allows hundreds of farmers markets to accept SNAP (food stamps)

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