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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.
