140%: The increase in the food-stamp rolls since 1990.

More people than ever before are receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, but the rate of increase has slowed substantially since the height of the recession.

The number of people collecting food stamps has more than doubled since 1990, even as the population has only increased by about 25%.

The numbers first began to swell during the 2001 recession. By 2007 the share of the population receiving assistance for food had climbed over 9% from under 8% in  1990. But the figures really started to jump off the charts during the most recent downturn. In March, the most recent month for which data are available, more than 15%, or some 1 in 7 people, in the U.S. were on food stamps.

In some states the numbers are even higher. Mississippi is the state with the largest share of its population relying on food stamps — 22% — though Washington, DC was a bit higher overall at 23%. One in five residents in Oregon, New Mexico, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky also are food-stamp recipients. Wyoming has the smallest share of its population on food stamps — 7%.

So let’s do the math in Georgia…9,920,000 people in the State…1 of 5 on food stamps…that means 1,984,000 people receive food stamps !!!!  Hard to believe isn’t it with unemployment at 8.2% in Georgia. That means 1,170,560 people have jobs AND get food stamps !!!  And we wonder why our taxes are so high !!!!