New statistics from the Illinois food stamp program show an increase in those receiving assistance, and food pantries are reporting that more people are coming to them for help.
Numbers from the Illinois Department of Human Services show about 857,000 households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in December. That’s 12.7 percent more than a year earlier, The Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday.
The largest increases were in DuPage, Kendall, Kane and McHenry counties.
Nearly 468,000 households in Cook County received food stamps in December, a 13.6 percent increase over the previous year. The largest increase of 30.3 percent came in McHenry County with a rise to 7,265 households.
“Since the fall of `08, we’ve had an increase practically every month” statewide, Jan Freeman, director of the SNAP program in Illinois, told the newspaper. “We’re not seeing it go down yet.”
To qualify for the program, a family of four must have a monthly income of less than $2,400 to receive the maximum benefit of $154 a week.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository has a network of 650 pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in Cook County. It reported serving about 65 percent to 70 percent more people since 2007.
“More people turned to the pantries in our community in November than in any month in our 32-year history,” chief executive Kate Maehr said.
More people on food stamps, public aid, using food pantries so what does Speaker Madigan and his troops do? They raise our taxes 66%……….. Makes perfect sense only if you are trying to bankrupt a state and nation.
I know it’s not much, but every little bit helps, right? There’s a few events coming up in Chicago that are gonna help benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository. One of them will be on February 3rd hosted by local celebrity/restauranteur/entrepreneur Billy Dec for his twitter/social media birthday (and he has a few other events in February that will also benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository). With the food, celebs, and the number of his followers, hopefully it’ll be a good turnout to help those in need in Chicago. There’s more information here on his blog: http://bit.ly/eYWxzp.