On The Stamp: Food Stamp Participation March 2011

As a logical consequence of the prolonged economic downturn it appears that participation in the federal food stamp program is continuing to rise.

In fact, household participation has been climbing so steadily that it has far surpassed the last peak set as a result of the immediate fallout following hurricane Katrina.

The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture shows that in March, an additional 387,849 new recipients were added to the food stamps program, an increase of 11.13% on a year-over-year basis, while household participation increased 13.57%.

Individual participation as a ratio of the overall civilian non-institutional population has increased 10.28% over the same period.

Participation continues to increase with nominal benefit costs climbing a lofty 11.32% on a year-over-year basis to $5.98 billion for the month.