Approximately 40 million Americans received monthly food stamp benefits in 2010, up from about 26 million in 2007. Increased unemployment during the recession was a major contributing factor to the growth in the number of Americans depending upon SNAP. 
 

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is the nation’s largest anti-hunger program. 

• Approximately 40 million Americans received monthly food stamp benefits in 2010, up from about 26 million in 2007.¹ All states experienced an increase in the number of people on SNAP—the new federal name for the food stamp program. In 27 states, the increase was more than 50 percent. In four states—Nevada, Idaho, Florida and Utah—the numbers of people receiving SNAP benefits more than doubled. Missouri had the smallest increase at 8 percent.
• More than 75 percent of all SNAP participants are in families with children.
• A recent study estimated that at some point in their childhood, nearly half—49.2 percent—of all American children will live in a household depending on SNAP.²
• Significant portions of states’ populations depend on SNAP to prevent hunger, from nearly one in five people in Mississippi and Tennessee (19 percent each) and West Virginia, Oregon, Louisiana, Michigan and Kentucky (18 percent each) to just 6 percent in Wyoming.

• In 26 states, unemployment from 2007 to 2010 more than doubled.
• Annual rates of unemployment in 2010 reached double digits in 15 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina. 
• Similarly, state poverty rates increased between 2007 and 2010, making more people eligible for SNAP benefits. Poverty rates increased in all states except Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Rhode Island during this time frame.

• Every $5 in SNAP benefits generates $9.20 in total economic activity, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.³
• Eighty percent of all benefits are redeemed within two weeks of receipt and, according to the USDA, 97 percent are spent within the month. Most of the spending is in local community stores.⁴
• The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act increased monthly SNAP benefits by 13.6 percent beginning April 1, 2009, pumping an estimated $18 billion into state economies between 2009 and 2012. Total increased economic activity in the states will exceed $34 billion.