According to figures released by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW), some 22,000 food stamp recipients are receiving benefits, but are not required to do anything to help themselves get back into the workforce. Of the 235,000 Idahoans on food stamps, 40 percent of them, or about 93,000, are non-disabled adults without children. A portion of them, about 22,000, are not required to do any work searches or job applications to take part in the program. These 22,000 are without jobs and don’t qualify for unemployment benefits, which require recipients to be actively seeking work in order to receive money/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. More here.

Question: Should unemployed recipients of food stamps be required to seek jobs?

Last week, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called Barack Obama the “food stamp president,” citing a record number of Americans receiving food aid. Idaho has set its own record, as the number of people receiving food stamps rose from about 87,000 in 2007 to about 229,000 in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now, 15 percent of Idahoans get food stamps. Since Otter became governor in 2007, the food stamp caseload has jumped 163 percent, putting Idaho behind only Nevada’s 172 percent growth rate/Dan Popkey, Statesman. More here. (AP photo of Butch Otter)

Question: Is it a good thing or a bad thing that usage of food stamps have increased so much under the tight-fisted oversight of Gov. Butch Otter?

Item: Record number on food stamps: 235,000 Idahoans receiving help to buy groceries/Alecia Warren, CdA Press

More Info: Jacob Pence never thought he would need food stamps in his life before two years ago, he said. Then came marriage, three children and a recession crippling his career in the construction industry. Now the 21-year-old will take what help he can get, he said. “You've got to cover rent, electricity, and I don't get enough hours to pay rent,” the Post Falls resident said, standing outside the Health and Welfare assistance office in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday. “I'm looking for another job to help with that.” … Idaho is reporting a record number of 235,000 residents on food stamps, following dramatic increases in applicants over the past few years.

Question: Have you ever had to rely on food stamps to make ends meet?

Two families from Nampa were featured in an NBC piece this week about the high demand for food assistance and the rush to purchase food on the first of the month, when money is deposited into recipients’ accounts.  What the piece doesn’t detail is the number of Idahoans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), and how much that number has grown in recent years. According to this study from the Urban Institute, Idaho saw its SNAP enrollment go up by 123 percent between 2007 and 2010.  Idaho’s increase in SNAP rolls was second only to Nevada’s, where use of the program grew by 128 percent over the same period/Molly Messick, StateImpact. More here. (Photo: Rock Center/NBC)

Question: Do you know Idahoans who rely on food stamps to supplement poor-paying jobs to get by?

Police are looking for tips on two women caught on tape using a food stamp card from a wallet lost in the Wal-Mart parking lot earlier this month.

The victim dropped the wallet about 2 a.m. June 6 in the lot at 9212 North Colton Ave., then reported it to Wal-Mart employees.

The next day, the victim’s food stamp card was used at the nearby Winco.

Surveillance video captured images of two women using the card at Winco, 9257 N. Nevada St.

Anyone with information on their identities is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

$1 is going to save the economy? Well, according to Msnbc.com, Washington State thinks it’s the best plan, “supposed to bring millions of dollars worth of food stamps to the state by March.”

The state is sending out thousands of checks made out for $1 to “the state’s neediest residents”, all with the purpose to aid our current economic struggles. 

When adding up the cost of paper and postage, this may not make much sense. (Helloo? I can barely buy a Sprite with a dollar…or anything off that ‘Dollar Menu!’…) How is a buck supposed to help Washington’s 250,000 resdidents on food stamps?

“We’re trying to do this at a time when people need assistance the most,” said Leo RIbas, head of community services at the Department of Social and Health Services. He says that the food stamp recipients can recieve this dollar for “energy bill assistance, that qualifies them for extra federal assistance….someone [on food stamps] could recieve about $30 more per month in food stamps.”

I think I’m going to take my dollar to the pop machine…ooohh..

Is the buck-a-roo really worth it? Do you think the economy will balance out based on this check send-out?