November 21, 2009
What's Inside:
Study: Half of U.S. kids will get food stamps
CHICAGO — Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say.
The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.
“Your neighbor may be using some of these programs but it’s not the kind of thing people want to talk about,” Rank said.
The analysis was released Monday in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors say it’s a medical issue pediatricians need to be aware of because children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty.
“This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children,” Rank said.
Food stamps are a Department of Agriculture program for low-income individuals and families, covering most foods although not prepared hot foods or alcohol. For a family of four to be eligible, their annual take-home pay can’t exceed about $22,000.
According to a USDA report released last month, 28.4 million Americans received food stamps in an average month in 2008, and about half were younger than age 18. The average monthly benefit per household totaled $222.
Rank and Cornell University sociologist Thomas Hirschl studied data from a nationally representative survey of 4,800 American households interviewed annually from 1968 through 1997 by the University of Michigan. About 18,000 adults and children were involved.
Overall, about 49 percent of all children were on food stamps at some point by the age of 20, the analysis found. That includes 90 percent of black children and 37 percent of whites. The analysis didn’t include other ethnic groups.
The time span included typical economic ups and downs, including the early 1980s recession. That means similar portions of children now and in the future will live in families receiving food stamps, although ongoing economic turmoil may increase the numbers, Rank said.
An editorial in the medical journal agreed.
“The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes,” Stanford pediatrician Dr. Paul Wise wrote.
Wise said the Archives study estimate is believable.
“I find it terribly sad, but not surprising,” Wise said.
James Weill, president of Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, said the analysis underscores that “there are just very large numbers of people who rely on this program for a month, six months, a year.”
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90%. Ninety percent.
How, in the United States of America is such a staggering statistic even possible?
Not hard to figure that one, LOD.
90 percent on food stamps equals a 90 percent vote for the likes of Obama.
This comment was removed by the site staff.
mm1967 November 3, 2009 at 6:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)Cold hearted people.I cannot believe people would post let the little snot nosed little B-------- starve.You should be ashamed of yourself.These children are the future of this country and just because they are eating food purchased with food stamps does not make the children bad people.I hope when you get old and one of these little snot nosed children has to take care of you either in a hospital of a nursing home.you are the kind of americans we do not need.
If St. Joe didn't exist, I'd have to invent it.
Am I missing something?
MM1967, did you actually READ what I posted?
LOD:
“How, in the United States of America is such a staggering statistic even possible?”
It’s because welfare created a permanent underclass. It’s much easier to pop out kids and get a raise than it is to get a job and earn a raise.
I stand corrected,I oppligze.I did read your post wrong and can admit it.
The empty suit would like %100 on government aid so he and his tax cheats and socialist czars could dictate you totally. Look at all the public housing and prisons WHO resides in these? WHO has 5 to 8 kids with different fathers that provide NO support? The government encourages this. Tie the handouts to work and watch the numbers decline.
Wouldn't it be nice if we actually attacked the root cause of this problem? These children are overwhelmingly from single parent and other home environments where they are not living with their natural birth parents. Yet another cost of the sexual revolution that society chooses to ignore.
well, ?ijg, i guess you just got your answer...... sadly. mm, read for comprehension!!!!!!!!
dale, really, you sound like a former mayor of joetown i know.
if we keep acting like its ok for 14 year olds to get pregnant or that its ok for them to be sexually active at all this statistic will never go away. i am 26 and i can tell you that at 14 i didnt even know what sex was. i think there are much bigger underlying problems to this statistic. i do agree though that it is a good safety net to those dealing with things beyond there control (layoffs, illness, ect..)
77cod and dalearch allow me to invite you to spend a day in one of the church Food Pantries or at Second Harvest. Allow me to invite you to serve at the Open Door Food kitchen. Get to know the people. Listen to their stories. There are working poor served because of what has happened to the industrial base of the economy. Read the story on St. Joe Packaging. Those fammiles are going to need help to tide them over until.
Heritage:
I assume you think I’m wrong?
Hey!! mm1967 admitted he read it wrong, and said so!! Get off his case!!! I imagine everyone here, INCLUDING heritage, has made similar mistakes!!
C'mon everyone!! Smile!! It's Tuesday!!
yes, i do, dale.i don't believe that it is right to visit the sins of the parent(s) on the children, and i especially do not think that there are so many abusing the system that it invalidates the aggregate of the effort.
i agree with usedtobe. go down and watch the people who are arriving at second harvest. there are men sitting in the car quietly sobbing because they are there for the first time, and are in total disbelief because the year before they had been Donors, not Recipients.
my mother's family was fortunate during the great depression. my grandfather funded over a dozen soup kitchens in NYC. each of his six girls worked at those kitchens..... perhaps i learned the importance of compassion for my fellow man from her........
and Please don't go on about how i am a liberal. i believe in social justice.
I don't see the "social justice" in taking the fruits of their labor away from the producers in order to subsidize the breeders.
ww, i must that is heartless, but most of all gutless. you are an example of everything which is wrong with the former republican party, now hijacked by the likes of people like yourself.
if you are going to make comments of such immense inhumanity, the least you can do is take off your sheet.
Heritage:
I don’t think it is right to visit the sins of the parents on the children either. But at the same time, I don’t believe it is right to visit the sins of the lazy and shiftless on the rest of society.
I believe that making it easy on people to be lazy and shiftless encourages that behavior. Why get an education and try to make something of yourself if you can just go on the government “payroll”?
In my opinion this is one of the major problems in St. Joe. For years people had the attitude that they didn’t need to try in life. They would get a union job and be taken care of. Now things have changed and those people are SOL.
Do I believe that everyone on welfare is lazy and shiftless? Absolutely not. I imagine my definition of “abusing the system” and yours are quite different. I feel that anyone that doesn’t try to better themselves is abusing the system.
As for the people you refer to “quietly sobbing because they are there for the first time”, some of them will remain there and probably sink even lower. Some of them will grab hold of their belt loops and pull themselves back up – probably much wiser from the experience.
I have compassion for my fellow man too, but I believe in tough love. I don’t know who said this but they were right on the money: “Give a man a fish – he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish – he’ll eat forever.”
People have to take personal responsibility for their actions or inactions.
pops, mm knows i was kidding. we are actually pretty good friends........ but you are used to sense/less excuses of " i was only joking" , i forgot.
seriously, have a nice day, also.
i know several people in this economy who have lost jobs. they look every single day for employment. they have lost their homes, their children's college funds, and are now selling their belongings on ebay. all they have left is their dignity.
we could, each and every one of us, find ourselves in this very same situation.
yes, i can see how those belt loops could come in handy. how much are they selling for these days?
I’m not referring to people who have lost jobs – I’m referring to people who won’t look for a job – people who won’t even accept a job if offered to them.
Welfare didn’t just start within the past year or so.
I have found myself in this situation - more than once. I didn’t go get help anywhere, though I probably should have.
The last time I ended up filing bankruptcy. That was seven years ago. Within four years (three years ago) I was back to a point where I could have retired. I keep working for three reasons: 1.) I’m still helping my daughter through law school. She has 1 ½ years left. 2.) I don’t want to take a chance of it happening again. 3.) My wife won’t let me retire – she says I’d drive her crazy since I don’t fish or play golf. :)
The belt loops are free. However, the reward for using them can be priceless.
Congrats, dalearch!! Watching our kids find their place is truly a priceless reward!!
As for retirement....it's not all it's cracked up to be. I keep hearing people tell me when they retire, they're so busy, they don't know when they ever had time to go to work!! Well....that's WAY to busy for my liking!! I think I'll just stay working!! At least I'll get SOME rest!!
Thanks pops. You’re right…there are very few things as rewarding as watching your children succeed in life.
I don’t believe I could ever retire completely anyway. My wife would probably end up either killing or leaving me.
Wright_Winger November 3, 2009 at 5:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Not hard to figure that one, LOD.
90 percent on food stamps equals a 90 percent vote for the likes of Obama.
What is wrong with this WW person? These are children, for god sakes don't punish them for the mistakes of their parents. From time to time ANYONE could need a hand. While I agree there are abusers, they certainly are not the children.
I am fascinated by some of these posts. If the problem is truly mistakes by the parents leading to children, why is there some right wing literature out there that will say that we, in the US, are not having enough children fast enough? At one point, a comment was made that the advantage of letting in immigrants from Mexico was that, when they were legalized, they would add to the Christian population, which is falling behind to the Muslims. No, I would still go back to the US becoming a service economy. In St. Joseph, where our primary industry tends to be fast food, that isn't even a part of the service economy. That makes us "King of the Fast Foods", which by the way, I have heard that per capita, we are.
The puzzling nature of this study must cause one to pause and wonder about the motivation of its author. Why, when the USDA maintains statistics on all foodstamp recipients broken down by race and ethnicity would this study solely limit itself to black and white? This is extremely strange when one considers that the number of Hispanic children receiving foodstamps is almost double that of black children.
Another glaring omission in the study of foodstamp trends is the fact that the poverty rate for the black population during many of the years evaluated 1968-1982 averaged in the mid 30 percentile.
I'll take this study and file it away with my Super Predator file labeled outlandish claims that boggle the mine.