Add this to your list of indicators that the recession isn’t over yet: There are now more Americans on food stamps than at any time in history. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 36 million Americans currently receive food stamps, and 50 percent of American children will have lived in households which receive government food assistance by time they turn 20.
We speak with Mark Rank, professor of social welfare at Washington University in St. Louis and one of the authors of the study. Also with us are Angel Seymore, a home health care aide from the Bronx who receives food stamps; and Joel Berg, executive director of New York City Coalition Against Hunger.