Food For Thought

Via Memeorandum, another depressing milestone for the US economy:

For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps, which help poor people buy groceries, government figures said on Thursday, a sign of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression.

Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in May, the latest month for which figures are available.

It was the sixth month in a row that enrollment set a record. Every state recorded a gain in participation from April. Florida had the largest increase at 4.2 percent.

We have tens of millions of people in America who can't afford food, let alone health care. More and more folks, and folks you know, are falling through the cracks. They're not lazy or stupid or living off handouts. They're people who have lost their jobs, are underwater on the house payments, and have nothing left but to fall back on food stamps. Three million more Americans joined the rolls from September 2008 to May 2009.

Millions more will join in the months ahead.