After Newt Gingrich scored some points during his South Carolina campaign by calling Barack Obama the “food stamp president,” C-U Citizen Access’ Dan Petrella took a look at local Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program enrollment.
Nationally, the number of people using SNAP benefits rose from 27 million in October 2007 to 44 million in February, according to the website PolitiFact.com. That’s an increase of about 63 percent.
A sample of eight counties in East Central Illinois shows a similar trend. On average, the number of SNAP recipients in Champaign, Coles, Crawford, Douglas, Edgard, Iroquois, Moultrie and Vermillion counties increased by 18 percent from 2006 to 2011, according to data from U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In Champaign County, the number of SNAP recipients grew 24 percent during this time.
Read the full article for some context into the cause of this trend. It might not even be all Obama’s fault, believe it or not.