WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Sixteen million children were on food stamps as of last year,
the highest number since the nation's economy tumbled in 2008.
Numbers
released by the Census Bureau Wednesday as part of its annual look at
children and families show that one in five children were on food stamp
assistance in 2014. The survey was taken last spring.
The
number of people receiving food stamps - now called the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP - spiked through the recession and
has stayed at a higher level since. In the 2007 Census survey, 9
million children received SNAP assistance.
Participation
and spending appear to be going down, though. The Congressional Budget
Office said this week that the government spent $76 billion on SNAP last
year, down 8 percent from the year before. That was the first time
spending went down since the beginning of the recession.
Around
46.5 million people received food stamps last year, according to the
Agriculture Department, which oversees the aid, up from around 26
million in 2007. Participation is expected to decrease over the next 10
years, though higher food costs could keep spending up.
Half
of the children receiving food stamps in the Census survey - 8 million -
were living only with their mothers. Around 5 million children
receiving food stamps lived with married parents.
The
spike in food stamp spending has caught the attention of Congress, and
House Republicans tried to cut the program by around $4 billion a year
in 2013. In an eventual compromise, Congress agreed to cuts of around
$800 million a year, policy that was signed into law by President Barack
Obama early last year as part of a larger farm bill. Since then, many
states have found ways to get around the cuts.
The
SNAP program will still be under scrutiny in the new Republican
Congress. The new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Texas
Rep. Mike Conaway, and the new chairman of the Senate Agriculture
Committee, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, are both expected to take a look at
food stamp spending in the coming year.
Billy
Shore, the founder and CEO of Share Our Strength, a national anti-hunger
group, said childhood hunger doesn't get enough attention. His group is
pushing Congress to leave the food stamp program untouched and to find
new ways to end childhood poverty.
"These kids are the most vulnerable and the least responsible for the situation in which they find themselves," he said.
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