With how much America spends on Wars and Aid it is appalling how the social safety net is looked down upon a large group of Americans. This recession needs to end now<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the one thing I can count on every month \u2014 I know the children are going to have food,\u201d Ms. Bermudez, 42, said with the forced good cheer she mastered selling rows of new stucco homes.
\nMembers of this straitened group range from displaced strivers like Ms. Bermudez to weathered men who sleep in shelters and barter cigarettes. Some draw on savings or sporadic under-the-table jobs. Some move in with relatives. Some get noncash help, like subsidized apartments. While some go without cash incomes only briefly before securing jobs or aid, others rely on food stamps alone for many months.
\nThe surge in this precarious way of life has been so swift that few policy makers have noticed. But it attests to the growing role of food stamps within the safety net. One in eight Americans now receives food stamps, including one in four children.
\nvia The Safety Net – Living on Nothing but Food Stamps – Series – NYTimes.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With how much America spends on Wars and Aid it is appalling how the social safety net is looked down upon a large group of Americans. This recession needs to end now \u201cIt\u2019s the one thing I can count on every month \u2014 I know the children are going to have food,\u201d Ms. Bermudez, 42, … <\/p>\n