45.8 Million Americans on Food Stamps Now

By Blake Ellis August 4, 2011: 5:03 PM ET

Food stamp use hit an all-time high in May.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Nearly 15% of the U.S. population relied on food stamps in May, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The number of Americans using the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) -- more commonly referred to as food stamps -- shot to an all-time high of 45.8 million in May, the USDA reported. That's up 12% from a year ago, and 34% higher than two years ago.

The program provides monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families, which they can use at stores that accept SNAP benefits.

To qualify for food stamps, an individual's income can't exceed $1,174 a month or $14,088 a year -- an amount that is 130% of the national poverty level.

The average food stamp benefit was $133.80 per person and $283.65 per household in May.

The highest concentration of food stamp users were in California, Florida, New York and Texas -- where more than 3 million residents in each state received food stamps in May.

Full Article Here> http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/04/pf/food_stamps_record_high/

Tags: economy, foodstamps, inflation, jobs, unemployment, welfare

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Permalink Reply by Nikki on August 4, 2011 at 7:48pm

Yet ABCBSNBCNNBBCFOX says we're in a recovery!

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Permalink Reply by Krypke on August 4, 2011 at 8:07pm

to much use of the word food... now i'm hungry. anyone got any FOODSTAMPS!

Lol

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Permalink Reply by Vincent L. Guarisco on August 4, 2011 at 8:25pm

That's a lot of hungry people! Can you imagine what would happen if the food stamp program stopped tomorrow? Well, yes ... more people would get jobs if they're lucky enough to find one, but crime would certainly go through the roof. Nothing motivates a criminal more than a hungry stomach, unless of course, you're a white criminal scumbag.

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Permalink Reply by Krypke on August 4, 2011 at 8:44pm

Hey don't be dissin' white people ese.

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Permalink Reply by Vincent L. Guarisco on August 4, 2011 at 8:47pm

Lol ... I meant to say white collar criminal.

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Permalink Reply by Krypke on August 4, 2011 at 8:56pm

Lol

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Permalink Reply by Nikki on August 4, 2011 at 8:56pm

Er, glad you clarified that. I was wondering what you meant :-)

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Permalink Reply by Burbia on August 4, 2011 at 8:43pm

The More Americans That Go On Food Stamps The More Money JP Morgan Makes

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-more-americans-that...

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Permalink Reply by Burbia on August 4, 2011 at 9:04pm

well, yeah, bush is a poster boy for corporate welfare, don't hear much about that crap though...

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Permalink Reply by Maria De Wind on August 5, 2011 at 4:02am

That is more than the total population of Ukraine

29	Ukraine	45,706,126	May 1, 2011	0.66%	Official UKRSTAT estimate
30	Tanzania	43,187,823	2010	0.62%	Official estimate
31	Argentina	40,091,359	October 27, 2010	0.58%	Provisional census results
32	Kenya	38,610,097	August 24–25, 2009	0.56%	Official census results
33	Poland	38,186,860	2010	0.55%	Official estimate
34	Algeria	36,300,000	January 1, 2011	0.52%	Official estimate
35	Canada	34,539,000	August 5, 2011	0.5%	Official Canadian Population clock
36	Morocco	32,221,000	August 5, 2011	0.46%	Official Moroccan Population clock
37	Uganda	31,800,000	2010	0.46%	Official estimate
38	Iraq	31,672,000	2010	0.45%	UN estimate for 2010
39	Afghanistan	31,412,000	2010	0.42%	UN estimate for 2010
40	Sudanⁿ¹⁶	30,894,000	2008	0.45%	2008 census results
41	Peru	29,461,933	June 30, 2010	0.42%	Official INEI estimate (in Spanish)
42	Venezuela	29,316,000	August 5, 2011	0.42%	Official Venezuelan Population clock
43	Nepal	28,584,975	2011	0.41%	Official estimate
44	Malaysia	27,565,821	2010	0.4%	The 2010 Population and Housing Census (Census 2010)
45	Uzbekistan	27,445,000	2010	0.4%	UN estimate for 2010
46	Saudi Arabia	27,136,977	2010	0.39%	Official Saudi estimate
47	North Korea	24,346,000	2010	0.35%	UN estimate for 2010
48	Ghana	24,233,431	September 26, 2010	0.35%	Provisional 2010 census results
49	Syria	23,695,000	2010	0.34%	Civil affairs records(2010)
50	China, Republic of (Taiwan)ⁿ⁴	23,174,528	May 31, 2011	0.33%	Official National Statistics Taiwan estimate
51	Australiaⁿ⁵	22,670,282	August 5, 2011	0.33%	Australian Official Population Clock
52	Yemen	22,492,035	2009	0.32%	Official estimate
53	Mozambique	22,416,881	2010	0.32%	Official estimate
54	Romania	21,413,815	January 1, 2011	0.31%	Eurostat estimate
55	Madagascar	20,714,000	2010	0.29%	UN estimate for 2010
56	Sri Lanka	20,669,000	2010	0.29%	UN estimate for 2010
57	Côte d'Ivoire	19,738,000	2010	0.31%	UN estimate for 2010
58	Cameroon	19,406,100	January 1, 2010	0.28%	Official estimate
59	Angola	19,082,000	2010	0.27%	UN estimate for 2010
60	Chile	17,263,500	August 5, 2011	0.25%	Official INE projection (page 36)
61	Netherlands	16,687,000	August 5, 2011	0.241%	Official Netherlands population clock
62	Kazakhstan	16,518,000	May 1, 2011	0.24%	National Statistics Agency estimate
63	Burkina Faso	15,730,977	July 1, 2010	0.23%	Official estimate
64	Niger	15,730,754	2011	0.23%	Official estimate
65	Malawi	14,901,000	2010	0.23%	UN estimate for 2010
66	Mali	14,517,176	April 1, 2009	0.21%	Preliminary 2009 census result
67	Guatemala	14,361,666	2010	0.21%	Official estimate
68	Ecuador	14,306,876	November 28, 2010	0.21%	Preliminary 2010 Ecuadorian census result

69	Cambodia	13,395,682	March 3, 2008	0.19%	Cambodian 2008 Census
70	Zambia	13,046,508	October 16, 2010	0.19%	2010 Zambia Census result
71	Zimbabwe	12,571,000	2010	0.18%	UN estimate for 2010
72	Senegal	12,434,000	2010	0.19%	UN estimate for 2010
73	Cuba	11,241,161	December 31, 2010	0.16%	Official estimate
74	Chad	11,227,000	2010	0.17%	UN estimate for 2010
75	Belgium	10,918,405	January 1, 2011	0.16%	Eurostat estimate
76	Greece	10,787,690	June 1, 2011	0.16%	2011 census estimate
77	Portugal	10,636,979	January 1, 2011	0.15%	Eurostat estimate
78	Tunisia	10,549,100	July 1, 2010	0.15%	National Statistics Institute of Tunisia
79	Czech Republic	10,535,811	March 31, 2011	0.15%	Official estimate
80	Bolivia	10,426,154	2010	0.15%	Official estimate
81	Rwanda	10,412,820	2010	0.15%	Official estimate
82	Haiti	10,085,214	2010	0.15%	Official estimate
83	Hungary	9,986,000	January 1, 2011	0.14%	Official estimate
84	Guinea	9,982,000	2010	0.15%	UN estimate for 2010
85	Belarus	9,469,000	June 1, 2011	0.14%	National Statistical Committee
86	Sweden	9,440,588	May 31, 2011	0.14%	Statistics Sweden
87	Dominican Republic	9,378,818	December 1, 2010	0.14%	Preliminary census result
88	Somaliaⁿ⁷	9,331,000	2010	0.13%	UN estimate for 2010
89	Azerbaijan	9,165,000	July 1, 2011	0.13%	State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan
90	Benin	8,778,646	2010	0.13%	Official estimate
91	Austria	8,404,252	January 1, 2011	0.12%	[3]
92	Burundi	8,383,000	2010	0.12%	UN estimate for 2010
93	United Arab Emirates	8,264,070	Mid-2010	0.119%	Official estimate
94	South Sudanⁿ¹⁶	8,260,490	2008	0.12%	2008 census results
95	Honduras	8,215,313	2011	0.12%	Official estimate
96	Switzerland	7,866,500	December 31, 2010	0.11%	Official Switzerland Statistics estimate
97	Israelⁿ⁸	7,751,000	May, 2011	0.11%	Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

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Permalink Reply by Localtarian on August 5, 2011 at 1:13pm

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Permalink Reply by Tara on August 5, 2011 at 2:28pm

Talk about the scum of the earth profiting off of a peoples demise! Anyway for these crook bankers to make a buck, they will do whatever it takes which includes, lieing, cheating, stealing and sometimes killing to get their greedy hands into someone elses pockets, even when the pockets are almost completly empty. It makes me sick.