Food Stamp Recipients Now Outnumber Women Who Work Full-Time

In 2012 the number of people accepting food stamps outnumbered the number of women who worked full-time, year-round in the United States, according to data from the Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau.

Data collected from the Department of Agriculture showed that in the average month of 2012 there were 46,609,000 people participating in the food stamp program. That figure contrasts with the 44,059,000 women who worked full-time, according to the Census Bureau’s report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States.

For each woman who worked full-time, according to CNSNews.com, there was slightly more than 1 other person collecting food stamps.

The Department of Agriculture’s website lists the annual average number of food stamps participants going back to 1969. In 1969, there were only 2,878,000 people on food stamps. Since then, food stamps participants have increased by 44,758,000.

That’s a devastatingly massive expansion of participation in a poverty program that was initially set up to provide temporary assistance to widows and orphaned children.

In 2013, the average number of people on food stamps increased to 47,636,000.