Food Insecurity, Food Stamp Participation, and Poverty: The Paradox of Missouri

Abstract

The current economic recession has made it difficult for millions of American households to make ends meet and cover basic needs such as food. The largest federal program that supplements food consumption is the Food Stamp Program.1 While typically, you might expect that food insecurity is lower in states that have high rates of participation in the Food Stamp Program, in Missouri we see a very different pattern. At a time when national levels remained relatively constant, Missouri's food insecurity rate rose from 9.8 percent in 1996 to 12.9 percent in 2006. What is noteworthy is that this increase in state levels of food insecurity occurred during a time when participation in the Food Stamp Program in Missouri rose from 74 percent to 98 percent of those eligible. This report shows the intersection and interplay of three metrics commonly used for examining population well being: food insecurity, food stamp participation, and the poverty level.