With more people losing jobs and facing foreclosure, the "SNAP" food stamp program is now expanding at a rate of about 20,000 people a day. An estimated one in eight Americans depends on the benefit to buy food. Because so many people are now on the food stamp program, retailers are taking note and adding more staff on the first of the month when recipients receive their benefits.
Not only are retailers adding staff, some businesses that never accepted food stamp benefits before are doing so now. Shoppers are not limited to just supermarkets such as Kroegers, Star Market, Stop & Shop and Safeway when it comes to using their "SNAP" benefits. Larger "super-stores" such as Walmart and COSTCO are now popular places for shoppers to get the most out of their monthly benefits.
According to a report on MSNBC, Dollar General says food-stamp use accounts for about 4 percent of its sales, and is growing about 10 percent year over year. In addition, Kroger Co. Chief Executive David Dillon said food stamp use at the biggest U.S. grocery chain is at the highest levels that executives at the company can remember.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, statistics for the food stamp program are as follows:
51 percent of all participants are children (17 or younger), and 65 percent of them live in single-parent households.
55 percent of food stamp households include children.
9 percent of all participants are elderly (age 60 or over).
79 percent of all benefits go to households with children, 14 percent go to households with disabled persons, and 7 percent go to households with elderly persons.
36 percent of households with children were headed by a single parent, the overwhelming majority of whom were women.
The average person receives benefits for about nine months.
About 40 percent of participants have someone in the household who still earns wages. Children account for a little more than half of users.
Children of food stamp users are enrolled in free school lunch programs.
The average household size is 2.3 persons.
To accept food stamps, retailers must sell food in each of four staple food groups: bread and grains; dairy; fruit and vegetables; and meat, poultry and fish. Or, at least 50 percent of the total sales in a store must be from the sale of eligible staple food, like flour, bread or beef.
Read more about the Food Stamp (SNAP) program here.
Written by Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
