Reaching Those in Need: State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates in 2007.

In the continuing debate about the effectiveness of nutrition programs for low-income people, policymakers and others concerned about hunger in America want to know whether people in different areas of the country who need SNAP benefits—formerly called food stamp benefits—are getting them. This brief notes wide variation across states in 2007—with participation rates ranging from 47 to 100 percent. About 66 percent of eligible people across the United States received SNAP benefits in that year. The brief also notes that 56 percent of eligible working poor—people who live in households in which someone earns income from a job but have income low enough to qualify for SNAP—participated in the program. Mathematica has produced these rates for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, since the mid-1990s. The estimates were derived using shrinkage estimation methods drawing on data from the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, and administrative records.