Going hungry Food-stamp use spikes in Michigan

WASHINGTON -- About 86,000 more Michigan residents found themselves on food stamps last year, contributing to a whopping 76.8 percent increase in use of the federal food program in Michigan between 2001 and 2006, a report released today shows.

Michigan had the fifth-highest recipient growth rate in the country since 2002, according to the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based food advocacy group that annually looks at how government initiatives such as food stamps and school breakfast and lunch programs are used.

``Michigan certainly is among the hardest-hit economies in the states right now,'' said Terri Stangl, executive director of the Center for Civil Justice, an anti-poverty group with offices in Flint and Saginaw. ``We are one of the most extreme examples of what happens when the economy goes bad, and food stamps are part of filling the gap for families.''

In 2006, Michigan averaged 1.1 million recipients per month using food stamps to supplement their food budgets. Michigan recipients accessed $1.2 billion in federal food-stamp assistance in 2006 -- up $140 million from the year before.

Michigan families living on that assistance are still scraping just to get by, advocates say.