Americans' Food Stamp Use Nears All-Time High

Washington Post by Jane Black | Nov. 26, 2008 (News Report)

Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.

The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on a new economic stimulus package, said legislators and anti-hunger advocates, predicting that any stimulus bill will include a boost in food stamp ... Full Story »

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Michael Bugeja
4.2
 by Michael Bugeja - Nov. 26, 2008

This feature story on Food Stamps could have read like a government news release, but reporter Jane Black's sourcing highlights the nuances of quality journalism. For instance, she not only interviews officials and archives facts and past actions; she interviews people applying for food stamps. She forecasts a USDA report on numbers approaching 30 million on food aid, careful to note how many are children and foreshadowing her last paragraph about the WIC program that helps infants and is due to expire next year. She cites experts on the stimulus of food stamps, generating $1.73 in economic activity for every $1 invested. That's a social return that should catch the eye of President-Elect Obama whose mother, the Washington Post reporter notes, also received food stamps for a brief time.

After almost 20 years working in Appalachia, and seeing hunger in children weekly, I can attest that the food stamp program is an essential component of our capitalistic culture. Health care should come next. As food and health care are basic to the even playing field that America touts as essential to fair competition.

To qualify for the food stamp program, whose name was officially changed last month to the Simplified Nutrition Assistance Program, recipients must have an income below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, or less than $27,564 for a family of four. The benefits, which average $109.93 a month per person, are based on a plan set by the government to represent a low-cost but nutritionally adequate diet. Participants apply locally to receive an electronic card that is used like an ATM card to buy food at most grocery stores and some farmers markets. The maximum benefit for a household of four is $588 a month.

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