Arizona Food Stamp Recipients Tops One Million

The number of food stamp recipients in Arizona has increased drastically in the past year, to the point that now more than one million people are eating government funded meals.That means about one in every six Arizonans is on food stamps.KTAR spoke with Steve Meissner from the Arizona Department of...

By James King

November 17, 2010

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The number of food stamp recipients in Arizona has increased drastically in the past year, to the point that now more than one million people are eating government funded meals.

That means about one in every six Arizonans is on food stamps.

KTAR spoke with Steve Meissner from the Arizona Department of Economic Security. He says there's been "a significant increase" in the number of people applying for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

From KTAR:

"Specifically, in the past year, the number of individuals getting it has jumped 15.4 percent. Right now, there's in excess of one million people in Arizona getting some form of supplemental nutritional assistance."
Meissner said the recession has been tough on people from all walks of life.
"People from some fairly wealthy areas. We have people from Paradise Valley and from some high-income areas in central Phoenix, so we do have to deal with people who are not used to being poor and now they are.

Check out the full KTAR story here.

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