Thread: 46,496,145: Food Stamp Recipients Can Fill Yankee Stadium 925 Times

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46,000,000 Americans on Food Stamps...


46,496,145: Food Stamp Recipients Can Fill Yankee Stadium 925 Times
In June 2014, there were 46,496,145 recipients of the food stamp program, which is enough to fill the Yankee Stadium 925 times, according to data from the...
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46,496,145: Food Stamp Recipients Can Fill Yankee Stadium 925 Times

September 12, 2014 - 5:08 PM
By Ali Meyer
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(AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) -- In June 2014, there were 46,496,145 recipients of the food stamp program, which is enough to fill the Yankee Stadium 925 times, according to data from the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The Yankee Stadium is equipped to hold 50,291 persons, meaning that the 46,496,145 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients in June 2014 could fill the stadium 925 times. The number of recipients was up 270,999 since the previous month in May 2014 when there were 46,225,146 individuals participating in the program.

Yankee Stadium in New York.

Similarly, the number of households participating in the SNAP program has increased as well from the 22,590,393 participating in May 2014 to the 22,713,934 participating in June 2014, an increase of 123,541 households.
Participation in the SNAP program peaked for individuals in December of 2012, when there were 47,792,056 persons participating. Since this peak, participation for individuals has declined by 1,295,911 individuals.
Historically, since the beginning of the data that appears on the USDA website, participation has increased 7.6 percent. In October 2010, there were 43,201,052 recipients of SNAP benefits. Since then, the number of beneficiaries has increased by 3,295,093 persons, or 7.6 percent.

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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...dium-925-times

Nearly 1 Million Vets Face Food Stamps Cut

Article at the page link:

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...tamps-cut.html

NYC welfare food is shipped in barrels to the Dominican Republic – then sold on the black market

By Isabel Vincent
July 28, 2013 | 4:00am



Photo:

Food-stamp fraud in New York has turned into foreign aid — to black-market profiteers in the Dominican Republic.
Last week, The Post revealed how New Yorkers on welfare are buying food with their benefit cards and shipping it in blue barrels to poor relatives in the Caribbean.
But not everyone is giving the taxpayer-funded fare to starving children abroad. The Post last week found two people hawking barrels of American products for a profit on the streets of Santiago.
“It’s a really easy way to make money, and it doesn’t cost me anything,” a seller named Maria-Teresa said Friday.
The 47-year-old Bronx native told The Post she scalps barrels of Frosted Flakes and baby formula bought with welfare money in the United States.
Maria-Teresa said she gets new barrels every few weeks from her sister, who buys everything at a Western Beef on Prospect Avenue near East 165th Street in Foxhurst.
The scamming sibling pays $75 per barrel to transport the items to the DR through Mott Haven’s Luciano Shipping. Sometimes the family fraudsters take advantage of a special: three barrels for the price of two.
Maria-Teresa said she uses some of the products but vends the rest out of her Santiago home, providing markdowns of $1 to $2 compared to what her buyers would pay in local shops.
“I don’t know how much of a business it is, but I know a lot of people are doing it,” she said.

CARIB CONNECTION: A man named Jean in the Dominican city of Santiago last week sells a barrel shipped from NYC and stuffed with welfare food — part of a thriving black market. (Jose Ernesto Devarez)

CARIB CONNECTION: A man named Jean in the Dominican city of Santiago last week sells a barrel shipped from NYC and stuffed with welfare food — part of a thriving black market.

The black-market maven even takes her customers’ requests for hot-ticket items. Her best-sellers include a 19-ounce box of Frosted Flakes, which goes for $6.50 at Dominican supermarkets. She sells it for $2 less — after her sister buys it on sale for $2.99.
But because the sister uses her Electronic Benefit Transfer card, she actually pays nothing — taxpayers foot the $2.99.
Maria-Teresa also offers a 24-ounce Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box for $2, compared to the $4 Dominican counterpart. The Kellogg’s variety costs $2.99 on sale at Western Beef.
A 23-ounce container of powdered Enfamil baby formula goes for $25 in the United States and $19 in Santiago but Maria-Teresa sells it for $15. “People want the best quality for the price, so they buy the formula made in the US,” she said.
The average monthly wage in Dominican Republic is about 7,000 pesos, or just $167, and that’s why the black market has become so profitable, Maria-Teresa said.
And the food-stamp fraud doesn’t stop there. She said her sister has Bronx grocers ring up bogus $250 transactions with her EBT card.
In exchange, the stores hand her $200 cash and pocket the rest. No goods are exchanged. Instead, Maria-Teresa’s sister sends the money to Santiago — when she’s not spending it on liquor or other nonfood items.
“We do it all the time, and a lot of people do this,” Maria-Teresa said. “It’s a way of laundering money, but it’s easier because it’s free.”
Jean, another public-assistance cheat in Santiago, told The Post he has peddled welfare food in Santiago since getting deported from New York in 2010.
A thirtysomething Haitian national, he said his sister in Queens uses her EBT card to purchase food before shipping it to him from Long Island City.
“Every other month, I receive the barrels from my sister in New York City,” he told The Post. “Whatever I don’t need, I sell.
“My sister uses food stamps to buy most of the things she sends me,” Jean added. He says the barrels are filled with cereal, baby formula, juices, olive oil and canned soup.
He said his sister uses Long Island City’s Santiago Cargo Express, where barrels full of food cost $100 to ship to the DR.
When The Post found Jean, he was lugging an empty barrel down the street and hoping to sell it to a friend for $35. Many Dominicans then use the containers to store water for their homes.


http://nypost.com/2013/07/28/nyc-wel...-black-market/

Food stamp use among military rises again

By Jennifer Liberto @CNNMoney February 17, 2014: 10:18 AM ET


At military grocery stores, more food stamps have been redeemed over the years.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)
More military families used food stamps to buy milk, cheese, meat and bread at military grocers last year.

Food stamp redemption at military grocers has been rising steadily since the beginning of the recession in 2008. Nearly $104 million worth of food stamps was redeemed at military commissaries in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

"I'm amazed, but there's a very real need," said Thomas Greer, spokesman for Operation Homefront, a nonprofit that helps soldiers on the financial brink nationwide.
Some of the growth in soldiers' redemption of food stamps reflects the weak economic recovery, especially for spouses looking for jobs. In 2012, there was a 30% unemployment rate among spouses off active-duty military who were 18 to 24 years old, according to the Military Officers Association of America, which released the survey last week.
Spouses who have to relocate every few years have a tough time finding work in the private sector.
Related: Senate votes to restore military pensions
During the recession, some states lowered eligibility for food stamps, making it easier to qualify. That could account for some of the growth in use by active-duty military, said Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association.
"It was easier for some of those families right on the cusp to qualify," she said.
In 2011, about 5,000 active-duty military members were on food stamps, making up less than a tenth of 1% of the 44 million on food stamps, according to the USDA, which has yet to update its figures.
Pentagon officials say they don't track who exactly is redeeming food stamps at military grocers, called commissaries. But they say that it's the bottom of the ranks, often the most junior 18 to 20-somethings who already have several children.
Base pay for a new soldier with a spouse and kid is around $20,000, just above the poverty line. Although that doesn't include housing or food allowances. The housing and food help put the income of an Army private with two years of experience a bit more than $40,000, the Pentagon says.
In 2013, Operation Homefront received 2,968 emergency requests for food help, more than any other kind of request for help. The numbers are down significantly compared to two years ago, but they're still nearly three times what they had been in 2008.
Related: My grocery bill will skyrocket if military stores close
"When there are unexpected disruptions for a family with a junior (enlisted) member, it can become a challenge to put food on table," Greer said. "Cost of food remains a very real challenge."



Commercial drones start test flights

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The good news is that the growth in food-stamp redemption at military grocers has slowed.
The 2013 figure was only a 5% uptick from 2012, less the the 13% increase in growth in 2012 and the record 70% hike in growth in food stamps use in 2009, according to the Defense Commissary Agency.
Food stamps has been a hot topic in Washington for months, as enrollment in the anti-poverty program remains at record high levels. Currently, 47 million Americans depend on food stamps. Half of them are children and a quarter of them are seniors.
Enrollment in the program soared during the Great Recession, with nearly 15% of the population getting benefits, according to recent federal data. The average monthly benefit was $134 per person in October.
Congress allowed cuts in the food stamps program last November, with the average recipient losing about $11 thanks to the expiration of a recession-era boost in funding. Active-duty military families were affected by those cuts.


First Published: February 17, 2014: 7:56 AM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/17/news...mps/index.html