U.S. Food Stamp Enrollment Hits New All-Time High

According to the latest U.S. Department of Agricultural report released on December 7, 2012, the number of U.S. participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or also referred to as Food Stamps) has hit an all-time record high of 47,710,324 for the month of September 2012, with an average per person benefit of 134.29 per month.  

Despite the recent economic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that U.S. unemployment has reached a post-recession low of below 8% for October and November 2012, over 600,000 new Food Stamp participants were added in just one month from the August 2012 figure of 47,102,765.  There were about 32 million Americans on Food Stamps when President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.