Food Stamp Program Enrollment

Posted on January 8, 2010 by townsend

• Kids on food stamps jump double digits, By Mark Curnutte, January 7, 2010, Cincinnati Enquirer: “The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other economic indicators continued to inch upward Thursday, but a new national analysis suggests that even more children will be hurled into poverty before the recovery takes hold. In fact, Ohio saw an 18 percent increase and Kentucky an 11 percent rise in the number of children receiving federal food stamp assistance between August 2008 and August 2009, according to the analysis ‘The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty.’ The analysis was released Thursday by the Brookings Institution and First Focus, a bipartisan advocacy organization working to make children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. In that 12-month span, 3.4 million additional children went on food stamps…”
• Food stamp usage grows in sagging economy, By Margie Peterson, January 4, 2010, Allentown Morning Call: “Not long ago, John was a homeowner with a car, a job and his pride. Once solidly middle class, the machine operator from Bethlehem lost his job and began the painful descent into the burgeoning ranks of the nouveau poor. ‘I never in a million years thought I would lose my job,’ said John, a Persian Gulf War veteran and married father of two children who asked that his last name not be used. ‘It’s hard not being the breadwinner of the family. We used to give donations and everything, and to have it turn around on you is really unbelievable. We’re hanging onto our house by a thread.’ With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, he has plenty of company. Local advocates for the poor say they are seeing new demographics of people seeking government help such as food stamps. From September 2008 to September 2009, the number of Pennsylvanians getting food stamps increased by 18.9 percent. Northampton County saw the number of households participating rise by 23.8 percent during that time, while Lehigh County had an 11.7 percent increase…”