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Food Stamps

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The amount of American households on food stamps reached a record high in March based on information from the Agriculture Department. The number of individuals using the food stamp program did not break any records but remained high. The program has been in the news frequently within the recent years and months because the amount of rolls have increased greatly and the cost has nearly quadrupled since 2001. This also doubled since the period that Obama took office. Nearly 80 percent of the $955 billion farm bill represents the funding that is associated with SNAP. The senate is expected to vote on the final passage of the bill this week. The House farm bill, which left the committee last month, cuts around $2.5 billion from the program annually.

One report from CBBP suggests, “Participation among eligible households also increased. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the SNAP participation rate rose from 65 percent in 2007 to 75 percent in 2010, the most recent year available. Households that already were poor became poorer during the recession. The widespread and prolonged effects of the recession may have made it more difficult for other family members and communities to provide support to people who are struggling to make ends meet. In addition, states continued efforts begun before the recession to reach more eligible households, particularly working families and senior citizens, by simplifying SNAP policies and procedures. All of these factors likely contributed to rising participation rates.”

The same report also suggests that most of the enrollment within the food stamp program increased based on the effects of the recession. The report states, “The number of people eligible for SNAP increased because of the recession and lagging recovery. The number of people with income below 130 percent of poverty (the SNAP income limit) increased substantially, from 54 million in 2007, before the recession, to 60 million in 2009 and 64 million in 2011, allowing more households to qualify for help from the program.” This is one of the many reasons why the cuts are being having such a negative impact; most families recall that they were not having issues with struggling to provide food or make ends meet when the economy was still steady before the period of the recession.

For this reason, there are many people who feel that it’s unfair and unreasonable to add further cuts to the food stamp program. Some cite that since they were forced to go on the food stamp program due to the recession, it makes no sense to punish them by cutting the benefits to supposedly improve the economy when it only has a more negative impact on those who were making ends meet with the program. Other people have suggested that since most people went on SNAP because of the recession, it doesn’t make sense to provide more cuts to the program under the excuse that it’s being done to help the economy when the economy is already starting to show signs of improvement — improvement that is generally garnered from the stimulus provided by the use of the food stamp program itself.

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