1 in 7 on Food Stamps in U.S.

One person in seven.  That is the number of people on “food stamps.” Mr. Gingrich to the contrary you can’t use food stamps to go to Hawaii.

To be correct the program is named the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. What SNAP does is help to fifteen percent of the population of our country put food on their table.  These are people who can not afford to buy food for themselves.  Is the program perfect?  No.  Are there instants of fraud, likely yes.  “Over 98% of those receiving SNAP benefits are eligible and payment accuracy was 96.19%.”  The numbers demonstrate that the frequency of fraud is very low.    

What is your guess as to what the eligibility threshold is for a single individual. How much money does a single person need to make or rather not make to be eligible for SNAP?  Five hundred dollars a week?  More? Less? The median household income in our area is $55,700 per year, which would be about nine hundred dollars a week.

In order to qualify for SNAP an individual would make less than $209 per week. For each additional person in the household the threshold increases by $72 per week.

Let’s assume that you qualify, what do you get in return?  What do you think the benefit amount is?  The average grocery bill for a single person with a moderate budget is about fifty five dollars per week. The benefit amount you might get from SNAP is on average is thirty dollars and eighty nine cents a week for a single person.  

Can you feed yourself on that amount per week?  Mario Batali accepted the challenge, can you ?? Will you ?? Are you creative enough to succeed?  Or will you fail?