Snap into place

Millions of Floridians remain enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps — even while the state's unemployment rate has declined significantly in recent years.

Many households that receive benefits have at least one working person in the home, if not two or more, according to a Business Observer analysis of federal data. But while job totals have increased, the number of households living below the poverty line has remained more stagnant.

In February 2001, an estimated 838,546 Floridians received SNAP benefits, data shows. Since then, the number has more than quadrupled, to more than 3.6 million, or roughly 18% of the state's population.

According to Jalil Isa, spokesman for the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, SNAP enrollment has ballooned because Florida's poverty rate has failed to recede — despite the recent drop in the unemployment rate. “Historically, there has been a lag of as much as two years between changes in the unemployment rate and changes in SNAP participation,” Isa says.

Florida's poverty rate peaked in 2012 at 17.2%, the U.S. Census Bureau says. In 2015, the latest year for which an estimate is available, the rate fell to 15.8%. That remains several percentage points above pre-recession levels.

As of July 2016, nearly 800,000 Floridians in the Business Observer's nine-county coverage area alone received SNAP benefits. In seven of the nine counties, the percent of the population utilizing the program was below the state rate.

Collier and Sarasota counties have the lowest rates of SNAP enrollment, at 7% and 8%, respectively. Hillsborough's rate is essentially even with the state, while Polk's rate is slightly higher (20%).

State lawmakers are considering changes to the state's SNAP eligibility requirements that would reduce the number of people who could receive benefits. Legislators have discussed lowering the income eligibility limit from 200% of the federal poverty level to 130%, or about $2,600 a month for a family of four. But that legislation is currently on hold, awaiting a federal budget.