Economic 'Recovery' Not Easing Overwhelmed Food Banks: "Get There Before the Food Runs Out"

Why are hungry people lining up for handouts when the economy is – at least according to the mainstream media – improving at a steady pace?

http://www.shtfplan.com/commodities/economic-recovery-not-easing-overwhelmed-food-banks-get-there-before-the-food-runs-out_08132015

During President Obama’s two terms, enrollment in SNAP, better known just as food stamps, rose to a record 46 million Americans receiving government assistance just to eat. Between 2008-2009, when the economic collapse hit, and 2013, the number of households on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) swelled dramatically from 15 million households to 23 millionhouseholds. Food banks and volunteer organizations have traditionally worked, often overtime, to fill the gap between government assistance and the real world demand for food by those in need. Today in 2015, these organizations are taken aback at why better times is NOT reducing demand for food aid – as it reliably has in the past. The Associated Press interviewed many of these food bank organizations: “The economy is really not getting better for low-income people,” Rice said. […] Food banks across the country are seeing a rising demand for free groceries despite the growing economy, leading some charities to reduce the amount of food they offer each family. […] “People who have low-wage jobs, who aren’t receiving regular raises, are finding those earnings stretched thin,” Ziliak said. The drop in food stamp rolls by nearly 2.5 million people from recession levels could be contributing to the food bank demand, he said, because people who no longer qualify for the government aid may still not earn enough to pay their bills. […] Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks, who has been working in food charities since the 1980s, said that when earlier economic downturns ended, food demand declined, but not this time.

Last year, Real Clear Markets addressed this conundrum, too, drawing from statistics to show how different the world of government dependence has become.