Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Tennessee

Food stamps become big business in TN, By Nancy DeVille, September 26, 2011, The Tennessean: “It was another bustling Thursday at the Tennessee Department of Human Services office in Nashville, with recession victims filling chairs and waiting for two hours or more to see what help they could get. But the day of the week doesn’t matter. The office always looks like that as more Tennesseans seek benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – commonly known as food stamps. It mirrors a national trend that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, attributes to a record unemployment rate. One in five Tennesseans is in the program this year – a 37 percent increase from 2008 – compared with 1 in 7 nationally. And with more people carrying the easy-to-use and discreet debit cards the program hands out, more businesses are stepping up to accept them…”