Food stamp use rises to record 45.8 million

[The Northerner]

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.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/04/pf/food_stamps_record_high/index.htm?iid=HP_River

[Taverner]

1. There's only one thing we can do to solve this...stop giving away food stamps!

We need to just stop giving them out

then we won't have record numbers of people getting them :crazy:

[glowing]

2. It would be better for families if the govt would raise the $ qualification for the food stamp

program. The reality is that with the costs medicine, healthcare, housing, and transportation costs, that requirement to help feed Americans is way too low. There is a reason that the number of "insecure food" % is increasing during this time of our Depression... And make no doubt about it, the poor and middle-class are experiencing a Depression crisis, despite the wealth that came back into the banks and wallstreet because they were given a blank check with no requirements.

Its past the time that a working wage was an actual stabilized living wage for people. It's way past the time that demands for people to work 60 to 80 hr work weeks either at one job for a company that doesn't want to hire or for multiple part-time positions to make up a living wage. It's time for us to demand a worthwhile living life. It's time to examine how people around this world; not just us, want to progress into the future. No one should be made to suffer so that another can have obscene amounts of power, wealth, and perks that damage the world, devastate families, and keep people living in retched environments.

It's Ike to make a STAND! It's time to start shutting down their fake economics that control our labor, time, and worth as a human being.