As the state Office of Legislative Research reported on its blog, the USDA, which administers the SNAP program (what used to be called food stamps) recently released some data about the use of the program — and it's going up.
Nationwide, 45 million people use SNAP to obtain food, an increase of 70 percent from 2007.
And in Connecticut it's even worse.
In 2007, about 215,000 enrolled for SNAP benefits — in 2011, that number jumped to 380,000, an increase of 78 percent.
The USDA also broke it down by household, and the increase is even more startling using that rubric.
Nationwide, the number of households getting SNAP benefits jumped 79 percent to more than 21 million. In Connecticut, there has been an increase of 82 percent, a jump up to 205,000 households since 2007.