The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that nearly 2 million people have stopped using the federal food stamp program over the last two years, and said reduced rolls are a sign that economic growth is finally beginning to reduce the need for federal nutrition aid more than six years after the Great Recession ended.
But that 2 million drop is not even 10 percent of the more than 21 million people who signed up for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, from 2008 to 2013.
“Seven years later, a stronger economy is helping slow and reverse the trend of rising participation in SNAP,” Undersecretary of Agriculture Kevin Concannon wrote in a blog post. “From its peak rates during the Great Recession, as families and communities begin to rebuild, participation in SNAP has dropped by over 2 million participants — and that’s the way the program is designed,” he added.
The Great Recession started at the very end of 2007, and lasted through June 2009. Before it began, there were an average of 26.3 million people using SNAP, and the rolls quickly grew each year through 2013, ending at an average of 47.6 million people.
That 21 million increase finally started abating in 2014, when average participation was 46.7 million people. According to USDA, participation fell again in 2015 to an average of 45.8 million people.
That’s not quite a drop of 2 million people, and still 19.5 million people more than pre-recession levels.
