Fighting Hunger. Feeding Hope.
September 25, 2009

Interesting Food Stamp Facts

Author: Brady Koch

Food Stamp CardOne of the programs I oversee here at Second Harvest is our Benefits Connection Program. This team of food bankers goes out into the community with laptops and scanners to complete food stamp applications at our partner feeding programs.

Since this program started a year ago it has generated over $6 million in food stamp dollars. We love this program, because the clients get to pick exactly what food they need for their family with these dollars.

I’m in the middle of researching some national statistics about food stamp use and found a wealth of information from the USDA.

Those who know me, know that I love numbers! I thought you might be interested in some of the facts about food stamp participants nationally:

• 49% are children
• 9% are over 60 years old
• 41% of all participants lived in households with earnings
• 13% have incomes over the poverty line
• 15% have no cash income of any kind
• $691 is the average gross income
• Average food stamp household received monthly benefit of $212.
• Only 7% of applicants get the minimum amount of $10.
• Average household size is 2.2
• 44% are Caucasian
• 33% are African-American
• 19% are Hispanic
• 4% are of other races

If you’re interested in Benefits Connection, or any of our other food outreach programs, please contact me.

Brady Koch
Director of Agency Relations & Programs
407.295.1066 ext. 30
bkoch@foodbankcentralflorida.org

  1. Half of all Children Receive Food Stamp Benefits
  2. Before We Hit the Field, Benefits Connection Hits the Books
  3. Unexpected Outreach
  4. Benefits Connection Attracts National Attention
  5. Our Point of View: Food Stamps


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2 Responses to “Interesting Food Stamp Facts”

  1. shillenaldermanon@gmail.com Says:

    Have you thought about adding a few social bookmark buttons on your blog? At least add one for Delicious so we could ping them up!

  2. Maria Diestro Says:

    We do have social bookmarking buttons. The first button under ..”SHARING IS CARING” is for Delicious. Let me know if this doesn’t work for you.


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