Food Stamp Participation: Gaps in Coverage

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  Approximately one in three people eligible for the Food Stamp Program are not receiving benefits, according to USDA. See "Trends in Food Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Rates: 2000 to 200" (View report summary and full report). In FY 2007, 66 percent of eligible people were served, virtually unchanged from 67 percent in FY 2006 and 65 percent in FY 2005. Food Stamp Program participation rates also vary among the states. See USDA’s “Reaching Those In Need: State Food Stamp Participation Rates in 2006” (View report summary and full report).

• FRAC estimates that in 24 large urban areas alone, federal Food Stamp Program benefits are being missed by about one in three likely eligible people; those urban areas are foregoing $2.27 billion in federal benefits that could be generating additional local economic activity. See FRAC press release and report, "Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City-by-City Snapshot."

• A July 1999 report prepared for USDA by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. identified lack of client information as a barrier to participation: among non-participating persons eligible for food stamp benefits surveyed in late 1996, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) were not aware that they were eligible.

• Urban Institute research suggests that many families leaving the Food Stamp Program in 1999 were still eligible.

• Federal safety-net programs (e.g. food stamps, health insurance) are being better utilized by families that left welfare between 2000 and 2002, due in part to improved state policies that help eligible families receive assistance. Compared to welfare recipients who left the program during the boom years (1997 to 1999), recent leavers (2000 to 2002) were more likely to return to the program or be subsisting in families with no employed member or one receiving disability payments.

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