One plan at a time
Save the American Community Survey (ACS). Contact your U.S. Senator to prevent the ACS’ end after the House of Representatives voted to eliminate it.
Eliminating the ACS doesn’t make sense. Communities depend on it. And so do businesses.
[image via American Planning Association New Jersey Chapter]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or formerly Food Stamp Program, has figures from May 2011. They are not pretty.
In May 2011, there were 45,753,078 participants in the United States.[1. As of August 1, 2011.] That’s an increase of 2.5 percent from April 2011 (44,647,861) and an increase of 12.1 percent from May 2010 (40,801,591).
Which states has the most participants?
1. Texas – 3,954,852
2. California – 3,727,005
3. New York – 3,019,981
4. Michigan – 1,926,072
5. Georgia – 1,794,537
It is worth pointing out that Texas has the highest total number of participants despite having over 12.1M fewer residents (total: 25,145,561) than the most populous state–California (37,253,956).[2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census.] Approximately 15.7 percent of all Texas residents are on food stamps; approximately 10 percent of Californians are on food stamps. (It would interesting to see the percentages for the other 48 states.)
One puzzling figure from the May 2011 statistics: 6th ranked Alabama saw its number of SNAP participants double in just one month–1,762,481 from 868,813 in April 2011.
Note: April 2011 statistics are preliminary, and May 2011 statistics are initial (estimates).
[photo via NCReedplayer]