Economix Blog: United States of Hunger

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Casey Mulligan noted Wednesday on Economix that United States spending on food stamps had skyrocketed since the recession began. A new Census Bureau report provides a look at just how big the program has become. Last year, more than one in 10 families received food stamps, with some states having significantly higher participation rates. In Oregon, the share was nearly one in five.

Here’s a map showing what share of families in each state received these benefits to help them buy food:

Census Bureau

In Oregon, 17.8 percent of families received food stamps, officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the highest rate in the nation. Oregon was followed by Tennessee (17 percent) and Michigan (16.9 percent).

The state with the lowest SNAP participation rate was Wyoming, with a rate of 6.2 percent. The next-lowest rates were in New Jersey (6.8 percent) and California (7.4 percent).

I must admit I’m a bit puzzled by some of these numbers. I would have expected California’s food stamp take-up rate, for example, to be much higher, since its unemployment rate is 11.9 percent, the state is broke, and so many cities there suffered from housing busts.

I did a quick scatterplot showing the relationship between median household income and food stamp take-up rates, and the relationship is relatively weak:

Source: Census Bureau

The relationship between unemployment rates and food stamp take-up rates was even weaker:

Source: Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Of course, there are a lot of variables not at all reflected by unemployment and median income figures, such as inequality and state safety net programs.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0f457b6a203f449f1ffdcba00b8ef16f