This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's food stamp caseload appears to have plateaued in the past few months, though numbers remain at record-breaking levels.
With just over 104,000 households using food stamps in August, September and October, advocates say such need, combined with continuing demand at food pantries, suggests the recession is far from over for many Utah families.
"It tells us is that the economy isn't improving for those folks yet," said Gina Cornia, executive director of Utahns Against Hunger.
The number of participants fluctuated by a few hundred over the past three months. Spending by those households, however, jumped by about $1.5 million between September and October.
"So the bad news is the food stamp program is still growing, which means there are more people in need," she said. "But the good news is people are spending that money in our community."
Using a debit-card system, food stamps provide cash assistance for low-income residents, allowing them to buy food. The amount a household qualifies for depends on income and family size. The federal government pays for the benefit.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that 11.8 percent of Utahns struggled with hunger between 2007 and 2009. The federal agency combines three-year averages of food survey results to determine the rate of hunger in each state. These numbers do not fully represent the impact of the ongoing economic problems, Cornia said.
However, in April 2009 Congress increased the amount of food stamp benefits by about 13 percent as part of the stimulus package, meaning an average family received an increased amount of money for food. That may have decreased food insecurity during the recession.
Due to inaccurate data, state officials had previously announced a nearly 5 percent dip in Utah food stamp use last spring. A slight decrease did take place between June and July, when about 1,000 fewer households used the benefit before numbers climbed again. Numbers dropped by about 700 users between September and October — although the data are considered preliminary.