One in five Illinois households now depend on government assistance to put food on the table. That’s according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Human Services. In September alone five-thousand Illinois households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.
More than two million Illinoisans are currently dependent on SNAP. When compared to job creation, SNAP participants outpace new jobs three-to-two. Since January 2010 the number has increased well over two-hundred-thousand people with an increase of over thirty-thousand this year alone. Only fifteen of Illinois’ one-hundred-two counties saw decreases in the number of SNAP participants since January.
