Food, Receipt and Restaurant

Food Stamp Receipt
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Headline

In 2005, 12.4 million children received food stamps, increasing from 11.8 million in 2004. The number of children receiving food stamps dropped by nearly a third in the years immediately following the enactment of federal welfare reform in 1996, but has risen each year since 2000. (See Figure 1)

Importance

Nine out of ten children living in poor families receive food stamps, a benefit designed to increase the food purchasing power of low-income households. (See Figure 2) The Food Stamp Program is the largest of the Federal Food Assistance and Nutrition Programs (FANP), accounting for over half of the Federal expenditures spent on all FANPs in 2002.¹ Receiving food stamps has been shown to increase household food expenditures and the availability of calories and protein.² Also, when controlling for other relevant factors, several studies suggest food stamp receipt increases food security,³ defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as having "access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members." ⁴ In 2004, benefit levels in 48 states and the District of Columbia were $371 per month for a household with three persons.⁵ Benefits were higher in Alaska and Hawaii.

In 1996, as part of federal welfare reform, food stamp benefits were reduced, and eligibility for food stamps was barred for most legal residents who are not citizens⁶ However, children who were legally resident in the U.S. prior to August 1996 and families receiving TANF benefits retained their eligibility.⁷ In 2002, food stamp eligibility was restored to legal, permanent, resident, foreign-born children.

Trends

The number of children receiving food stamps rose from 9.9 million in 1980 to 14.4 million in 1994 before falling to 8.7 million children in 2000. By 2005, this number had risen to 12.4 million children. (See Figure 1) Similarly, among all children, the percentage receiving food stamps fell from a peak of 21 percent in 1993 and 1994 to 12 percent in 2000 and 2001, before increasing to 17 percent in 2005.(See Figure 2) This trend also holds for children living in poverty. The percentage of poor children receiving food stamps decreased from 95 percent in 1995 to a low of 75 percent in 2001, and has recently peaked at 96 percent in 2005. A rising national unemployment rate between 2000 and 2005 may have contributed to this upward trend, as could have recent changes in state programs, such as easing some eligibility restrictions, increasing awareness of eligibility for those exiting welfare, and decreasing paperwork requirements.⁸ Increased food stamp participation in 2005 was also due in part to the particularly destabilizing effects of that year's hurricane season to the Gulf Coast.⁹

Related Indicators

Children in Poverty, Health Care Coverage, Long-Term Poverty, Long-Term Welfare Dependence, AFDC/TANF

State and Local Estimates

State estimates for the number of households with children receiving food stamps, the number of preschool and school age children receiving food stamps, and the number of all individual and household recipients are available from 1997 to 2006 in the Characteristics of Food Stamp Households: Fiscal Year report at
http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/menu/Published/FSP/FSPPartHH.htm (See tables B-1, B-5, and B-11 in the 2006 report)

State averages and rates for all people receiving food stamps (though not for children alone) from selected years during 1975-2005 are available at
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators07/apa.pdf. For additional selected years from 1977 - 2000 see
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators04/index.htm.(See Table FSP 6)

Local estimate ranges and shaded maps of ranges for counties from 1989 to 2002 available at:
http://nationalatlas.gov/natlas/Natlasstart.asp (In right-hand side section select People, Economy, Food Stamp Recipients, and year. Above map select state of desired county.).

Local estimates for a few select counties in 2000 are available at:
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=DEC&_lang=en&_ts

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International Estimates

None Available

National Goals

Although the government has not established national goals concerning food stamps, a Healthy People 2010 objective was set involving food insecurity. The goal involves reducing the United States' food insecurity rate to half its 1995 level (in which 12 percent of households were food insecure) by the year 2010.

More information on the objective and its progress as of 2002 is available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr26/fanrr26%2D2/

What Works: Programs and Interventions that May Influence this Indicator

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Research References

¹Fox, M.K., Hamilton, W., Lin, B. (2004). "Effects of Food Assistance and Nutrition Programs on Nutrition and Health: Volume 4, Executive Summary of the Literature Review". Economic Research Service/USDA. Available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr19-4/.

²Ibid, p. 11

³Ibid, p. 12

⁴ Nord, M, Andrews, M, and Carlson, S. (2007) "Household Food Security in the United States 2006." Economic Research Report No(ERR-49). Available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ERR49/

⁵Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 2004 Green Book Available at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wmprints/green/2004.html. (See Section 15)

⁶Ibid, p. 889.

⁷Ibid, p. 876.

⁸Zedlewski, S.R. & Rader, K. "Have Food Stamp Program Changes Increased Participation?". Social Service Review. Sept. 2005. p. 542

⁹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indicators of Welfare Dependence Annual Report to Congress, 2007. Appendix A, page A30. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators07/index.htm

Definition

The food stamp program provides benefits in the form of food coupons or electronic allotments for the purpose of increasing the food purchasing power of eligible low-income households so that they are able to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet. All child participants in the 50 states and the District of Columbia are included in the estimates presented here.

Data Source

Data for 2005: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indicators of Welfare Dependence. Annual Report to Congress, 2007. Appendix A. Table FSP1. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators07/index.htm

Data for 2004: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indicators of Welfare Dependence. Annual Report to Congress, 2006. Appendix A. Table FSP1. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators06/index.htm

Data for 2003: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indicators of Welfare Dependence Annual Report to Congress, 2005. Appendix A. Table FSP1. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators05/index.htm

Data for 1980- 2002: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indicators of Welfare Dependence Annual Report to Congress, 2004. Appendix A. Table FSP1. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/indicators04/index.htm

Raw Data Source

Caseload data are administrative data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. Population data are from U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. Poverty data are from the Current Population Survey.

Approximate Date of Next Update

Summer 2008

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