The number of Tennesseans receiving food stamps dropped under 1 million for the first time in a decade at the start of 2018 as the state’s improving economy helped lift more Tennesseans out of poverty, according to new state figures.
About one of every seven Tennesseans was enrolled in the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in January, including 49,687 residents in Hamilton County. That was the lowest since before the Great Recession hit the economy a decade ago and down by more than 25 percent from the peak levels reached in the wake of the economic downturn.
The number of Hamilton County residents on the supplemental nutrition assistance program also has fallen by more than 10,000 over the past four years as jobs have become more plentiful and wages have begun to rise. In 2013, nearly one of every five people in Chattanooga was getting SNAP benefits.
“These numbers are extremely encouraging,” said Stephanie Whitt, a former assistant commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Human Services who now serves as executive vice president of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a conservative think tank in Nashville. “This is a huge deal for the state of Tennessee and a great indicator that what we have been doing as a state has been working.”
Beacon estimates government food stamp benefits are down about $57 million a month from the peak reached in the wake of the Great Recession. In January, the last month for which statistics are available, DHS said that $123.9 million in SNAP benefits were paid to 999,421 individuals who lived in 492,290 households.