Hipster Defends Using Food Stamps

Stimulus package makes more young people eligible for benefits

(NEWSER) - Food stamps are for the poor, no matter if you’re a single mother or a destitute hipster. Salon checks in on the growing number of young, unemployed, college-educated foodies who qualify for stamps and use them for organic delicacies along with staples. One UChicago grad says he “used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese.” Not so. “You can get anything.” More»

Slip into poverty a grim economic indicator

(NEWSER) - In an economic indicator that paints a grim future for swaths of the US population, an all-time record 28 million Americans are expected to be close enough to poverty to receive $36 billion in food stamps in the coming fiscal year, reports the New York Times. There is a surge in recipients in 40 states, with 14 already reporting a record count last year. More»

One in 6 Americans now in federal anti-poverty programs

(NEWSER) - The recession has sent a record one in six Americans into federal anti-poverty programs, according to a new USA Today survey. More than 50 million are now enrolled in Medicaid, a number that has jumped 17% since the recession’s official start in December 2007. “Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record,” said one health pollster. And that doesn’t count the 16 million more who’ll enroll when the health care reform law takes effect in 2014. More»

Figure hits 90% for black children, study finds

(AP) - Nearly half of all US children and 90% 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 bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. More»

(NEWSER) - The recession has crippled funding for legal aid even as it has bumped up the number of people requesting representation, McClatchy reports. Though the federal government ramped up spending this year—and plans an even bigger increase for 2010—state funding and private donations have cratered, forcing legal aid to turn away about half of the 2 million valid cases it receives this year. More»