In 2009, 33,490,000 people received food stamp benefits. And it only went up from there under Obama’s watch. By October of 2016, 44,219,123 people received food stamp benefits, an increase of about 10,729,000.

From January to October of 2017, the number of individuals receiving food stamp benefits declined by approximately three million, but saw a drop eclipsing the past 10 months combined in November, attributable to those temporarily on food stamps as a consequence of last year’s hurricanes going off the benefits.

According to Breitbart,

Food stamp usage dropped from 45,666,795 in October 2017 to 41,658,868 in November 2017 — a staggering decrease of 4,007,927 over one month.

Even though there was a temporary spike in enrollment, mostly concentrated in a few states that caused the national average of food stamp enrollment to spike, nationwide enrollment in the program as a whole is still on a steady decline.

Enrollment in the program sharply increased by 3.5 million during the first month of fiscal year (FY) 2018 (October 2017) mostly due to heavy increases in temporary SNAP enrollment in hurricane-affected states such as Florida and Texas.

Due to the devastation, in Florida alone, food stamp participation soared by 2.5 million from September to October.

Overall, the trend is downward, both in terms of the number of individuals on food stamps, and the percentage of population receiving benefits.

Trump has expressed a desire to bring back work requirements for welfare, which the Department of Agriculture suspended during the financial crisis. Some states have already voluntarily re-implemented those work requirements, and to much success. Those states, and their corresponding decreases in the percentage of their able-bodied residents on the dole, are as follows: -85% in Alabama, -58% in Georgia, and -75% in Maine.

Unfortunately, most states have not re-implemented those requirements, and it’s unlikely they ever will unless food stamps is reformed at the federal level.

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