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Food Stamp Use Hits All-Time Record

  • Spence Cooper
  • August 3, 2011

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), announced a huge jump in food stamp usage of over 1.1 million — the highest single monthly jump in food stamp participation since mid 2009. That’s a total of 45.8 million people on food stamps, an all-time record.

The financial blog Zerohedge points out that virtually the entire surge in monthly SNAP participation is due to one state alone: Alabama, which saw those on food stamps jump from 868K to 1.762MM.

The increase may be due in part to the tornado that devastated Alabama back in April; nevertheless, since JP Morgan is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States, and is paid for each food stamp case that it handles, the more Americans that go on food stamps, the more profits JP Morgan makes.

Yum! Brands, Inc.” KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell ” has lobbied the Kentucky state government to allow the use of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT food stamps) cards in its restaurants. Kentucky ranks number 6 in the latest obesity rankings, with over 30 percent of obese adults.

Three states, Michigan, Arizona and California, already permit food stamps to be used in fast-food restaurants.

In California, 141,000 people in Los Angeles County are eligible to use their food stamps at local restaurants under a state program aimed at helping to feed the elderly, homeless and handicapped.

A 46-year-old homeless woman sleeps by a canal along a Freeway in Long Beach, California, is one of those eligible to use food stamps at local restaurants.

But of the 3.7 million food-stamp recipients in California, only a small percentage are eligible for the restaurant benefits. Besides Los Angeles County, only three more California counties offer the Restaurant Meals Program: San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sacramento.

Ricardo Lopez with the Los Angeles Times notes that when California launched the Restaurant Meals Program in 2004, advocates hailed it as a solution to feeding those who don’t have the means or ability to prepare their own meals.

But nearly 94% of participating restaurants in the state are fast-food establishments, writes Lopez, and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials are concerned that the program may be undermining the goal of promoting healthful eating.

When the program was launched in Los Angeles County, very few restaurants were willing to accept food-stamp benefits, said Social Services Director Philip L. Browning.

At a Los Angeles County KFC in Downey, California, assistant manager Sam Chavez said a drop in business was responsible for the restaurant’s recent decision to accept public assistance benefits. A large poster hangs in the windows announcing, “We welcome EBT,” referring to the food-stamp debit cards dispersed to recipients.

“Business was down everywhere, and I think this will boost our sales,” Chavez said.

Food Stamp Use Hits All-Time RecordSNAP Program Riddled With Fraud

Yesterday, the New York Post reported a former city welfare worker faces more than four years in jail for her role in a massive food-stamp fraud case that cost taxpayers at least $7 million.

Tori Jackson, 34, of Brooklyn, plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud as part of the four-year scheme inside the Human Resources Administration.

Jackson was the third person to plead out in the case, and admitted using fake names and Social Security numbers to process applications for food-stamp cards that officials say she later used herself.

Also on Tuesday, a man in Wisconsin was charged with taking his DEAD girlfriend’s food stamp card and using it to buy more than $1,000 of groceries the day after her death. The card was issued to a 27-year-old woman with cancer.

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