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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

States with the Most People on Food Stamps

With grocery bills priced as high as $1,300 per month as of late, some American workers simply cannot afford all of their groceries on top of everything else they already have to buy. This is why the government offers food stamps.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service reports that as of September 2014, there were around 46.5 million individual food stamp recipients (22.7 million households) receiving an average benefit of $123.74 each (around $257 per household).

To be eligible, a household has to earn a gross income amount that's less than 130% of the poverty level, or a net income amount (gross income minus deductions) that's less than 100% of the poverty level for their family size.

This means, a single person can be eligible for food stamps if his or her gross monthly income is under $1,265 ($15,180 per year), and a family of four can be eligible if they gross less than $2,584 per month ($31,008 per year). The applicant also can't be a wealthy person who simply doesn't have a steady income source. So, if the applicant has thousands of dollars sitting in the bank, for instance, they won't apply as cash assets are considered as well.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are a family of 5. We eat well, we don't eat a lot of junk, we tend to buy healthier options. I pack lunches for the kids everyday.

$1300 a month for food???!?!?

What are these people buying? I spend about 800 a month.

Anonymous said...

We spend about 1200 a month on groceries.. However, we have to children - one in pull ups, and anohter in diapers. So, a trip to Sams instantly adds around $100 with a box of each and wipes.

So once we are done with diapers (can't wait) I imaging we will be closer to $1000.

And this is NOT shopping on any type of budget. If we see it and want it we get it. Im sure we could greatly reduce this if we bought only necessary items for meals.

Anonymous said...

As a single mother with one child, I spend no more than $400.00 a month on food and that is tough to do. It drives me crazy when I am behind a food stamp/EBT shopper with their cart loaded with steaks, fish, etc totally well over $150.00 and I worry if my order goes over $25.00. On top of that, they wheel there cart out to the parking lot and load up other friends/family cars parked beside them with bags of groceries that they just bought using their welfare card.

Anonymous said...

VERY TRUE 7:53 AM.People are being taught to be "SLUGS". No problem ... tax and spend... working people will pay for it. Wake up citizens; remove head from sand.