Food Stamp Participation Climbs 10%

Following up my last post, on global food prices, there's another constituency that will be concerned about food price increases -- the 41 million Americans relying on the Department of Agriculture's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known to many of us as "food stamps." Click here for an earlier post.
The story is simple: in this serious recession, more and more people have turned to the social safety net for help in meeting the needs of daily life -- 26 million in September 2007, 31 million by September 2008, and in June 2010, the most recent report, 41 million people in 19 million households. Thirteen percent of the population, or more than one in eight people.

That's an increase of 10 percent from a year ago; participation increased every month this year. The costs of the benefits were $50 billion in the last fiscal year -- about $130 per month per person. (How much did we spend on AIG?)

In New York state, people are eligible for food stamps if their income is less than about $14,000 for a one-person household, and about $30,000 for a household of four. Here's a link to a story in the NYTimes about people with no cash income other than food stamps.

Fortunately, food prices in the US have been stable, so far at least. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says July's prices were up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, and actually fell a little for the month:

The index for fruits and vegetables fell sharply, declining 1.9 percent after falling 1.3 percent the previous month, and the index for cereals and bakery products fell 0.3 percent. These declines more than offset increases in the other four grocery store food groups. The index for nonalcoholic beverages rose 0.6 percent after falling in each of the previous two months, and the index for dairy and related products rose 0.5 percent. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, rose 0.3 percent, its seventh consecutive increase, and the index for other food at home advanced 0.2 percent. The food index now has risen 0.9 percent over the last 12 months, with the food at home index up 0.7 percent.