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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Updated Resources Illustrate SNAP's Important Role

We’ve updated a trio of SNAP resources — our Chart Book, Policy Basic, and state fact sheets — that explain the program’s essential details, including who receives SNAP (formerly food stamps), how much it costs, how it responds to need, and how it encourages work.

These resources highlight SNAP’s role in providing essential food support to low-income households and local economies, which was particularly important during the economic downturn.

In fact, as our Chart Book illustrates, a CBPP analysis using the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which counts SNAP as income, found that SNAP kept about 4.9 million people out of poverty in 2012, including about 2.2 million children.  National Poverty Center researchers found that counting SNAP benefits as income cuts the number of extremely poor households with children in 2011 by nearly half (see chart) and cuts the number of extremely poor children by two-thirds (from 3.6 million to 1.2 million).

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Click here for more on SNAP.