Food Stamp Program Participation Data
Food Research and Action Center:
In May 2006 food stamp participation at 26,013,901 persons was virtually unchanged overall from April 2006 (a dip of 5,661 persons nationwide).
The overall caseload for May 2006 was more than 600,000 persons higher than the prior May and nearly 8.8 million persons higher than in May 2001.
Caseloads dropped through 1998 and 1999 as the economy improved and many states failed to get food stamps to low-income families who had left cash welfare for low-paid work.
Increases in participation since then likely have been driven by improved access to the program in states, including most recently for legal immigrants, by the weakened economy for low-income families, and (in September, October and November 2005) by the hurricanes.
In May 2006 Massachusetts led all states with a 19.4 percent over-the-year caseload increase, in part due to implementation of the Combined Application Program that connects elderly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients with food stamp benefits.
Some reduction in poverty and improvement in the overall unemployment rate contributed to these Food Stamp Program caseload declines, but other factors, including negative program changes by Congress, interactions with the cash public assistance system that make food stamp access harder for eligible families, and lack of information about the program among potentially eligible people, explained much of the drop.
Because of the 1996 welfare law, by August 22, 1997 most legal immigrants lost eligibility for federal food stamp benefits.
The period after March 1997 was also marked by implementation of cuts in Food Stamp Program eligibility for many childless, jobless adults.
