The Food Stamp Program provides assistance to millions of families each month. This report examines how long families tend to receive food stamps, and what circumstances lead them to enter and exit the program. About half the families that begin receiving benefits participate for eight months or...

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides food assistance to more than 47 million low-income Americans every month. It aims to reduce hunger by facilitating beneficiaries’ access to enough food for a healthy, active lifestyle, otherwise known as "food security." Our study...

From 2000 to 2008, the average number of Food Stamp Program (FSP) participants rose by 65 percent because of increases in eligibility and participation. These changes occurred during a period that included declining national unemployment—the same period during which states were being...

This report looks at spending patterns for food, housing, health care, and other categories of low-income households in 2005. It compares allocations of consumption across spending categories for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households, eligible nonparticipating households,...

This report provides information on the participation patterns of infants and children who were enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) from 2001 through 2003. Several aspects of participation were examined including at what age and under...

Finds that overall, the Food Stamp Program reached fewer eligible individuals in 1997 than in 1996; the participation rate decreased by 5 percentage points to 63 percent. This rate was affected by eligibility restrictions on aliens and able-bodied adults without dependents. For households without...

Finds that the individual participation rate decreased 5 percentage points from 1997 to 1998, to 59 percent, the largest one-year drop since rates began to decline in the mid-1990s. Since 1994, the participation rate has dropped over 11 percentage points, indicating that fewer eligible...