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Food stamp use down in January

In January, 64,307 recipients were removed from the food stamps program, but participation continues to rise on a year over year basis.

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This chart shows the nation's food stamp participation as compared to the US total unemployment rate since 2004. Unemployment has dropped, but food stamp use continues to rise.

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 (which looks like a minor blip by comparison) set as a result of the immediate fallout following hurricane Katrina.

The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture shows that in January, 64,307 recipients were removed from the food stamps program with the current total still increasing 5.22% on a year-over-year basis while household participation increased 6.94%.

Individual participation as a ratio of the overall civilian non-institutional population has increased 4.36% over the same period.
Participation continues to swell with nominal benefit costs climbing a lofty 4.84% on a year-over-year basis to $6.15 billion for the month.

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