Where the biggest jumps in food stamps have been
Dante Chinni
Posted: 11.30.2009 / 9:35 AM PST
There are any number of ways to chronicle the great recession of 2008-09, but one of the most graphic is looking at a simple question: how hard is it for people to get food to eat.
Food stamp rolls have grown by more than 10 million during the past two years, according to numbers from the US Department of Agriculture. The program now feeds more than one in every eight Americans, the New York Times noted Sunday.
Looking at the data through our Patchwork Nation prism shows just how far-reaching the problem is. The numbers are up by double digits across all of our 12 community types, and that includes all kinds of economies from small towns dependent on agriculture to big cities with big diversified business landscapes.
It would be wrong, however, to assume every type of place is impacted the same way or to the same extent. There are some places seeing much harder times and the numbers can tell us a lot about where the economy has taken the biggest hits.
What’s left when the bubble bursts
None of the food stamp numbers are good, but the situation in the “Boom Towns” has been particularly bad. The “Boom Towns” grew more than any other Patchwork Nation community type during the first half of the decade, but the housing crunch has hit them severely.
Not only have they seen one of the biggest jumps in the number of people on food stamps – a 44 percent increase – but currently more than 10 percent of the people in the “Boom Towns” are on food stamps. That number is particularly high, considering “Boom Towns” are places with higher than average median household incomes.
In Eagle, Colo., for instance, a “Boom Town” Patchwork Nation regularly follows, food stamp use is up 150 percent over 2007. As we reported a few weeks ago, Eagle is awash in homes for sale and
has seen prices drop sharply in the past few years.
In some ways, the situation in Eagle and in the “Boom Towns” on the whole doesn’t look as dramatic as other places that have much higher numbers of people in the program. (In “Minority Central,” for example, on average 22 percent of the people receive food stamps.) But the significance of the increase in the “Boom Towns” – and for that matter the wealthy “Monied ’Burbs,” which saw its number of recipients increase 48 percent – is the effect on the economic psyche of those communities.
This recession has reached deeply into places less familiar with economic struggle. That is true of the “Mormon Outposts,” which have seen an increase of almost 55 percent.
Safer in farm country
By the measure of many economic metrics, rural “Tractor Country” has been relatively more immune to the woes of this downturn. That is true here, as well. Those agricultural counties saw one of the smallest increases in food stamp recipients – about 25 percent – and on average they have the fewest percentage of people on food stamps, only 7 percent.
In fact, in 116 of the of the 287 “Tractor Country” counties, the number of food stamps recipients dropped.
Significantly, “Tractor Country” counties as a whole never saw the housing boom times of the first half of the decade and have seen little of the crash. In October, “Tractor Country” communities had only .08 foreclosures per 1,000 households.
It suggests that the housing crisis is perhaps the linchpin of the much of the nation’s troubles, and getting out of the country’s economic hole will depend on righting it.
—
Follow us on Twitter.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:14 am PST
[…] Patchwork Nation: American communities in a time of change. > Patchwork Nation Blog | The Christi… patchworknation.csmonitor.com/csmstaff/2009/1130/where-the-biggest-jumps-in-food-stamps-have-been
November 30th, 2009 at 10:24 pm PST
[…] Comment In the Christian Science Monitor patchwork blog, Dante Chinni writes in the article “Where the biggest jumps in food stamps have been” that food stamp rolls have grown by more than 10 million during the past two years. Chinni […]
November 30th, 2009 at 10:25 pm PST
How do you define a “Mormon outpost?”
December 1st, 2009 at 12:20 am PST
If you click the “looking at the data” link in the article it gives more details about “Mormon outposts” and the other categories, but their science is obviously somewhat skewed because several regions such as Davis County, Utah and Tooele County, Utah are definitely Mormon outsposts, but they must fit more than one definition because they are categorized as “Boom Towns”. Of course, if you remove all the booming regions from the Mormon outpost definition you are going to get a skewed result. I would be interested to see how the data changes if regions are allowed more than one definition.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:26 am PST
The graphical display is deceptive. The growth rate dominates while the actually draw is minimized. Who on earth decided to portray these together? It horribly skews the average Joe just bumming around on the internet.
What they see is welfare and then “Mormon Outpost” next to the 54.7% figure. The whole seems almost stylized to over emphasize the growth in draw RATHER than the actual total draw. Considering that Mormon Outposts.
THERE ARE ONLY THREE REGIONS THAT HAVE A SMALLER PERCENTAGE OF THEIR POPULACES DRAWING ON FOOD STAMPS THAN THE MORMON OUTPOSTS.
But you’d never guess that if you were just lightly looking things over.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:42 am PST
Hello all,
First, the definition of Mormon Outposts can be found here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/interactive/patchworknation/communities/mormon-outposts/
As for the graphic, the numbers included represent to two numbers discussed in the story. And, yes, the increase numbers are much bigger in some places than others — look at the Monied Burbs and Boom Towns as well — but that’s really the point. How much have things “changed” during the recession. And if we didn’t put up the total recipient number some would accuse the post of being inaccurate because it focused on only the worst numbers. Still, I think the change is important because it about how far things have moved from “normal” in the last two years.
The point about David County is well taken, but Patchwork Nation is about more than just one indicator, even in the Mormon Outposts — things including income and voting records and occupation. Davis saw enormous growth over the first half of this decade. Its population grew by about 60,000. And the changes there have led other things to play a bigger role in defining that place. The same is true with Salt Lake County btw.
Thanks for coming by and posting though, and please feel free to post more questions. I’m on the road a lot, but try to get back here to answer questions when I can.
Thanks
-Dante
December 1st, 2009 at 11:48 am PST
Article aside, Dante, please remember that “it’s” means “”it is”, and is not possessive. “It’s population grew by about 60,000.”
Thanks…
December 1st, 2009 at 2:02 pm PST
Hey Andrew,
You try writing a reply in a hotel room as you stuffing breakfast in your mouth and heading for a second long day of reporting …
All kidding aside though. Thanks. It’s (it has) been noted — and fixed.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:33 pm PST
Tractor County has certainly not felt it like the rest of the country. However, over the last few months we had some significant layoffs at the Pella window plant–an area directly related to housing.
Also, the ’swine flu’ story has prfoundly affected hog prices in a county raising more pigs than almost any other in the country. ‘Tis Brutal as the swine flu has almost nothing to do with pigs.