The Human Services Dept. has been openly and diligently trying to identify new food stamp customers to enroll who are not even asking for it. Their efforts played a role in helping increase food stamp rolls by 60% and have been rewarded by the federal government. Oregon put out a proud press release announcing that they were awarded five million dollars for their food stamp recruitment efforts. Their efforts help rank Oregon as the second highest state in the proportion of its population under food stamps. That amounts to 785,000 people, roughly one of every five people in Oregon. When food stamps started in the 1970s only 1 in 50 people were on food stamps, now it is 1 in 7 nationally. It costs Americans $78 billion.
—DHS Press Release 9-28-2011, Huffington Post 7-13-2012, SNAP Questions & Answers USDA website 2012, Wall Street Journal 6-20-2012