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More Americans applying for food stamps

In May, 86,720 more Americans applied to the federal food stamps program. The swelling participation in the food stamps program shows that Americans are still feeling the effects of the prolonged economic downturn.

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As this chart shows, the percent of Americans on food stamps has swelled since 2007, reaching 19.41 percent in May.

As a logical consequence of the prolonged economic downturn, participation in the federal food stamp program is continuing to rise.

In fact, household participation has been climbing so steadily that it has dwarfed 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 indicated that in May, 86,720 individual recipients were added to the food stamps program with the current total still increasing 2.45% on a year-over-year basis.

Individuals receiving food stamp benefits increased to 47.63 million which, as a ratio of the overall civilian non-institutional population now stands at a whopping 19.41% of the population.

Households receiving food stamps benefits increased by 32,084 to 23.07 million households with the current total rising 3.29% above the level seen a year earlier.

As participation continues to swell, so too has the total nominal benefit cost climbing 2.27% on a year-over-year basis to $6.32 billion for the month.

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