The latest numbers from the New Jersey Department of Human Services suggest more than 882,000 people in the state are living on food stamps. More than 416,000 of them are children.
Thirty dollars per week doesn't offer consumers the most exciting and healthy shopping cart. But that's the maximum amount that food stamps can provide.
President Barack Obama's health care law has had a surprising side effect: In some states, it appears to be enticing more Americans to apply for food stamps, even as the economy improves.
Residents applying for food assistance would get a receipt from government agents and some low-income New Jerseyans would qualify for expedited access to benefits under bills moving through the Legislature.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would require the state to expedite the handling of applications for food stamps.
Four lawmakers, seeking to improve what they called New Jersey's "chronically poor performance" in administering the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, have introduced a three-bill package of legislation aimed at addressing the problem of delays in the SNAP application process.
Doctors are warning that if Congress cuts food stamps, the federal government could be socked with bigger health bills. Maybe not immediately, they say, but over time if the poor wind up in doctors' offices or hospitals as a result.
More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will see their benefits go down starting Friday, just as Congress has begun negotiations on further cuts to the program.