US becoming a food stamp nation.

Just a little data below for you. If rates of people going on food stamps is going up, and jobless rates are also going up, doesn't it correlate that the majority of people who are going on food stamps are people who were hard-working, gainfully-employed, good people who have fallen on hard times in this awful economic climate? An economic climate that, from what I've observed here on the boards from comments, was encouraged, and is exacerbated, by crappy governmental self-serving actions over the last several years/decades, meaning that those who've lost jobs often did so through no fault of their own, but rather poor policies that encouraged outsourcing, etc?

Would you continue to judge and punish those families?

Yes, the government is inefficient in its attempts to alleviate the problem of hunger, but it's better than leaving them without any support at all. And yes, before you jump in Printsmith, I will argue that the government has a place in providing that assistance, same as family and friends, as many don't have that luxury - our society has changed from nuclear families that stay close to hometowns to those that are much more mobile. Has this caused problems, sure, but it's the way it is now, like it or not. Maybe it'll migrate back a bit, but not all the way to the way it was historically.

I'm sorry, but I can't agree with comments along the vein that just because they're poor here in the US that they should be grateful b/c they've got it better than poor in other countries. Hungry is hungry no matter where you live, and children still die of malnutrition and starvation in this country and that is a huge failing in our society in my book.

http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/hunger-data/
Hunger Data

One of the most disturbing and extraordinary aspects of life in this very wealthy country is the persistence of hunger. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that in 2009:

Of the 50.2 million people living in food insecure households (up from 36.2 million in 2008), 33.0 million are adults (14.5 percent of all adults) and 17.2 million are children (23.2 percent of all children).

17.7 million people lived in households that were considered to have “very low food security,” a USDA term (previously denominated “food insecure with hunger”) that means one or more people in the household were hungry over the course of the year because of the inability to afford enough food.

Very low food security had been getting worse even before the recession. The number of people in this category in 2009 is more than double the number in 2000.

Black (24.9 percent) and Hispanic (26.9 percent) households experienced food insecurity at far higher rates than the national average.

http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/s ... tion-data/
SNAP/Food Stamp Monthly Participation Data
May 2011

45.7 Million Americans Received SNAP/Food Stamps in May 2011
Record Enrollment Continues Due to Economic Conditions, Outreach and Program Improvements

May 2011 Participation Tables — 1-Month Change, 1-Year Change, and State-by-state analysis (pdf)

In May 2011, SNAP/Food Stamps participation rose to a record 45,753,078 people, an increase of 1,105,217 individuals from April 2011, and an increase of more than 4.9 million people compared with May 2010. May 2011 participation rates in Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia included Disaster SNAP benefits.

One in seven Americans receives SNAP/Food Stamps. This is the highest share of the U.S. population on SNAP/Food Stamps.

Also in 2010, one in five Americans struggled with “food hardship,” according to FRAC analysis of data collected through the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project.

http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/cost-of-food/
Cost of Food

Low-income households are particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in the cost of food. For those with budgets already stretched to their limits, higher food costs mean that people struggle to afford enough food for themselves or their families.

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show an increase in the cost of food people are consuming at home. Food costs rose by 0.5 percent from April 2011 to May 2011.

The cost of the Thrifty Food Plan (the mix of food items on which low-income people rely) decreased by 0.13 percent from March 2011 to April 2011.

Based on the minimum wage of $7.25, it would take 84 hours – or more than two weeks – to earn enough to cover the current cost of the Thrifty Food Plan ($610 for a family of four).

Outlook for 2011
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service projects that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food will increase by 3 to 4 percent in 2011.
Food-at-home (grocery store) prices are projected to rise 3.5 to 4.5 percent and food-away-from-home (restaurant) prices by 3 to 4 percent.

http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/2 ... tatistics/
Poverty Data

According to U.S. Census Bureau data* released on September 16, 2010:

56.8 million people, or 18.7 percent of all Americans, lived on less than 125 percent of the federal poverty level in 2009. This means they are income-eligible for most federal nutrition programs, like food stamps and other child nutrition programs. These programs can help families and children stretch their food dollars and get access to healthy foods.

43.6 million Americans – or 14.3 percent of our population – lived in poverty, an increase of 3.8 million people from 2008. Children continue to be the poorest age group in the country.

15.5 million children, or 20.7 percent of all children under age 18, were poor – a larger percentage than any other age group. This was an increase from 2008, when 14.1 million children (19 percent) lived in poverty.

6.9 million (9.3 percent) of all children under 18 lived in families with incomes below 50 percent of the federal poverty level.

23.8 percent of related children under age six in families lived in poverty.

8.9 percent of all Americans 65 and over, or 3.4 million elderly, were poor.

The poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites was 9.4 percent, 25.8 percent for blacks, 25.3 percent for Hispanics, and 12.5 percent for Asians.

50.7 million did not have health insurance, an increase from 46.3 million in 2008.

Median income fell to $49,777.

To set the poverty level, the U.S. Census Bureau uses a set of income thresholds based on the Consumer Price Index. The income thresholds were originally set using the cost of a minimal diet (based on eating patterns in the 1950′s), multiplied by three. The federal poverty guideline for a family of four was $21,954 in 2009.

This is outdated data, but I wanted to highlight that hunger, and food stamps, aren't just for jobless people (that some seem to think are just lazy), it's also for the elderly, mentally ill who are unable to care for themselves, and children who are innocent in their parents' circumstances in life.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/h ... /stats.htm

In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet.

In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children.

The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white infants.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.

Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death