(Reuters) – A record 32.2 million people – one in every 10 Americans – received food stamps at the latest count, the government said on Thursday, a reflection of the recession now in its 16th month.
Food stamps, the major U.S. anti-hunger program, help poor people buy groceries. The average benefit was $112.82 per person in January.
The January figure marks the third time in five months that enrollment set a record.
“A weakened economy means that many more individuals are turning to SNAP/Food Stamps,” said the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, using the acronym for the renamed food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in February, the highest in 25 years. New claims for jobless benefits totaled 669,000 last week, the highest in 26 years, the government said on Thursday.
Food stamp enrollment rose in 46 of the 50 states during January as the national total rose by 580,000 people, or 1.3 percent, from December, when the previous record was set, said Agriculture Department figures.
Vermont, Alaska and South Dakota had increases of more than 5 percent. Texas had the largest enrollment, 2.984 million, down 65,000, followed by California at 2.545 million, up 43,000, and New York with 2.211 million, up 37,000.
“It is a very difficult time for low-income families and individuals and also a difficult time for the groups that serve them,” said Valentine Breitbarth of Bread for the City, a group that works with poor families in Washington.
Food stamp benefits get a temporary 13 percent increase, beginning with this month, under the economic stimulus law signed by President Barack Obama. The increase equals $80 a month for a household of four.
Recent food stamp data
Month Enrollment
September 2008 31.587 million
October 2008 31.050 million
November 2008 31.097 million
December 2008 31.784 million
January 2009 32.205 million
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE5314B320090403?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
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You cannot blame all of this on Obama, our worshipful messiah, but he is doing little if anything to assist the poor and the downtrodden. He sends TRILLIONS to Wall Steet Crooks that wallow in wealth, while doing little for the rest of us.
Oh excuse me now that I am unemployed I will receive $25 per week from the benevolent “leader”. Of course that will only last while my unemployment does, and that is only about 10 more weeks. Gee, $250 vs. $9,500,000,000,000 tells me what he thinks of us.
Any idiot would know that more money put in the hands of the rest of us would do more to stimulate the economy than hand out to the banksters.
Washington’s power brokers merely are running a minstrel show with one who is already a “dark” face. He and the power behind the throne have great disdain for you and me, and the rest of humanity.
Even more they commit High Treason in destroying the country that I love, but they count on you judging their puppet on the color of his skin and not on the content of his character.
He is but an empty suit. He is aiding and abetting the total destruction of the Untied States.
What would Malcolm X have said? Malcolm sid that there were two kinds-those from the house and those from the field.