This is just sad, folks.

CHICAGO — Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.

The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Your neighbor may be using some of these programs but it's not the kind of thing people want to talk about," Rank said.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/food-stamps-will-feed-hal_n_342834.html

I know my dad was out of work for a while and tried to get food stamps, but they said his retirement from the AF was too much.

I am black, but was never on food stamps - but my wife qualified as a student and got them. I most definitely did use them. We also got WIC for both children for a while too.

I never realized that these stamps could actually get you food!

I thought they were just staples for the jokes on Def Jam Comedy. People are struggling though; pride is thrown to the side and these stamps are gettin snatched.

Yeah. Now, they have EBT cards - it's invisible money really, but you can use them to buy another kind of foods - but they can't be hot (McDonald's or other foods, like deli items that are cooked) or alcohol. Otherwise, yeah, you can buy T-bones and the like.

My wife got books of stamps - not much, like $40 a month, but we bought a few things.

I grew up in an area where most folks were on food stamps.

I grew up poor and even though we never had food stamps or where on welfare, i do remember standing in line for food. ( a brick of government cheese is not easy to make grilled cheese with)

You mean the stamps aren't food in and of themselves?

Man, have I been doing it wrong...

Those bricks kept folks constipated.

I remember kids rhyming talking about govment cheese. LOL. You'd spot them at 10 paces. They would have no logos on the packaging - just the wrapper.

The EBT cards don't have the same effect as the stamps. Standing in line, kids would snicker when someone pulled out the food stamps. Then, we'd laugh at them when their moma pulled them out.

The stigma is pretty much gone now. Only real way you can tell someone is on WIC or stamps is when they have 3-4 jugs of milk, boxes of cereal and the real blocks of cheese.

That doesn't seem sustainable.

Maybe Gorbachev was right saying the USA needs a perestroika...

food stamps?

Here's a good explanation:

The United States Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)^[1], historically and commonly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal-assistance program that provides assistance to low- and no-income people and families living in the U.S. Though the program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, benefits are distributed by the individual U.S. states.

Today, most food-stamp benefits are now distributed using cards but for most of its history the program had actually used paper denominational stamps/ coupons worth US$1, US$5, and US$10. These stamps could be used to purchase any prepackaged edible foods regardless of nutritional value (for example soft drinks and confectionery could be purchased on food stamps). In the late 1990s, the food-stamp program was revamped and actual stamps were phased out in favor of a specialized debit-card system known as Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) provided by private contractors. Many states merged the use of the EBT card for public-assistance welfare programs as well. The successful replacement over time of all paper food stamps by EBT cards enabled the U.S. Congress to rename the Food Stamp Program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as of October 2008, and to update all references in federal law from "stamp" or "coupon" to "card" or "EBT". This was effectuated on June 18, 2008, by U.S. House Resolution 6124, The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, enacted as Public Law over U.S. President George W. Bush's veto.^[2][3]

The number of Americans receiving food stamps reached 35 million in June 2009, the highest number since the program began in 1962, with an average monthly benefit of $133.12 per person.^[4] Recipients must have near-poverty incomes to qualify for benefits.^[5]

They were originally a booklet of stamps - well, they look just like currency, but you could only spend them for food - not hot food and not alcohol - and everything in between. Now, they have credit cards that carry the same restrictions but speed the checkout process big time.

oic, here people get cash for benefits, I guess both ideas have pro's and con's

it's definitley a bad thing that more people need benefit's, it means somethings gone wrong somewhere, government should be trying to help people find work or make sure families dont get into that position if they can.