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Only Half of Income-Eligible Households Receive Food Stamp Benefits |
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A new analysis released today of 2004 county-level data and statistics found that half of all low-income people do not receive Food Stamp program benefits, according to the National Priorities Project (NPP), a non-profit, non-partisan research group that studies the local impact of federal budget policies. The report shows that: * A significant number of counties, 13.2 percent, had below-average percentages of low-income people benefiting from Food Stamps, yet had above-average poverty rates. * Counties with lower poverty rates and higher median household incomes had lower percentages of low-income people that were Food Stamp recipients. * The rural South had the highest percentage of enrollment in the Food Stamp program and more than half of all children were eligible for lunches through the National School Lunch Program. "We've got over 35 million people in this country struggling to get enough food to eat and 50 percent of all low-income people are not receiving the benefit that is intended to alleviate this food insecurity," said Greg Speeter, executive director of the National Priorities Project. "While the Food Stamp program provides a vital service, clearly too many people are still going without. "
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