I just have to wonder what kind of inhuman people want to ignore this. Hell, I wonder if most members of Congress even know about it! Are we supposed to believe that the United States of America can't afford to feed struggling people?
(CBS) OKLAHOMA CITY - For millions of Americans the economic recovery can't get here soon enough. In 2010 a record 40.3 million Americans received food stamps. That's a 20 percent jump from 2009.
CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports that even with that help, many are just getting by. By the end of each month the question in Sheri Lopez's kitchen isn't what's for dinner but will there be dinner?
Her daughter says, "At the end we're all just trying to find something in the cabinets. Sometimes you go to bed kind of hungry."
Sheri's husband lost his construction job a year ago.
"It has been downhill," says Sheri. "There've been no ups and downs. It has just been downhill."
This Oklahoma family of five saw no choice but to apply for food stamps. Their $500 benefit lasts two to three weeks but hardly four.
Just before midnight on the last day of every month, Sheri and her husband make a trip to the grocery store to beat the midnight rush.
"We get excited," says Sheri. "Like, 'Oh, we're going to go shopping tonight!'"
On the first of the month food stamp debit cards are automatically refilled with benefit money from the government. On an average night between midnight and 3 a.m., a store could bring in about $3000. On the first of the month that number is 10 times as much with almost everyone using food stamps.
