Posted on July 21, 2020 by Doug Henwood
[This serves as an addendum to my article on expanded unemployment benefits Jacobin just posted.] In April, the most recent month available, almost 6 million people were added to the food stamp rolls, reversing the long decline after the 2008–2009 recession. In percentage terms, that’s the biggest monthly increase since 1970, when the program was young and participation was just taking off. This surge is a thing unto itself. The number of participants in the food stamp program—which was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008, though the old name has… Read More
Posted on December 8, 2011 by Doug Henwood
One area where the languishing U.S. economy is breaking records these days is in need. One measure: more than one in seven Americans is now on Food Stamps, an all-time record. Here’s a graph of the share of the U.S. population drawing benefits from what used to be called the Food Stamp program, and is now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is no doubt some bureaucrat’s idea of catchy. As of September, the latest month available (data here), over 46 million people, or almost 22 million households, were… Read More
LBO News from Doug Henwood 