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Are Food Stamps Reaching Those in Need? |
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A new policy brief finds that about 65 percent of eligible people in the United States received food stamp benefits in 2005. The brief also notes that 57 percent of the eligible working poor---people who qualify for food stamps and live in households in which someone earns income from a job---participated in the program. Participation rates varied widely from state to state for both groups. Of those 26 million, over 10 million---41 percent---lived in households that had income from earnings, up from 30 percent of all food stamp recipients in 1996, the year in which the federal government began to place more emphasis on work for recipients of public assistance. The Food Stamp Program is the largest of the domestic food and nutrition assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service. Its participation rate---the percentage of eligible people who actually participate in the program---has been a widely used standard for assessing how well the program meets its goals. Mathematica, a nonpartisan firm, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector clients. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., has conducted some of the most important studies of nutrition, early childhood, health care, welfare, education, and employment policies and programs in the U.S. Mathematica strives to improve public well-being by bringing the highest standards of quality, objectivity, and excellence to bear on the provision of information collection and analysis to its clients.
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