Food Stamps up 71%
When I was a kid, my mom used to send me to the welfare office in her stead to take care of business because she was too embarrassed to face the people that worked there. It wasn't any party for me either, but the people I had to deal with were at least a generation ahead of me so my presence there didn't have any direct impact on my social standing amongst my peers.
The free lunch program at school, however, was a different matter. Every morning during first period, our teacher would call out each student's name on her 'Lunch List'. It was understood that the students were to call back one of three responses: Pay, sack, or free - to which our teacher would check the box in the appropriate column. Only a handful of us were in the free lunch program, so it was painfully obvious when the rhythm of sack-sack-pay-sack-pay-pay was broken with an interjection of 'Free'.
I don't remember how long it took me to get a paper route after that, but eventually I was shouting out 'PAY' a little louder than was necessary thanks my newfound income.
My mother always had either two or three part-time jobs or one full-time job while we were on public assistance. Eventually she got a job with the state that allowed her enough income to pay for everything herself. Before that happened, however, if it weren't for the help of the State of Ohio we would not have been able to afford the groceries we purchased. Just in case you're wondering - we never ate steak.
Today our economy has worsened to such a degree that 71% more of Ohio's working families are relying on food stamps to make ends meet than in the year 2000. If the cycle of history continues as it has in the past, then this percentage will drop as soon as the economy improves. In the meantime, if you see someone in line ahead of you paying for food with something other than cash or credit, know that they'd rather be in a different situation than the one you're currently viewing.