For many, the cupboard is still bare
The number of Vermonters needing help putting food on the table continued to climb in 2011. From December 2010 to December 2011, households participating in Vermont’s 3SquaresVT program increased by 7.4 percent. Since the Great Recession hit in December 2007, the number of households getting food stamps has risen 90 percent. More than 48,000 households, comprising more than 95,000 Vermonters, needed assistance to buy food at the end of 2011.
The map shows the percentage of households in each town receiving food stamps at the end of that year. The 3SquaresVT data are from December 2011, and the total number of households for each town is based on the 2010 Census. The Vermont Department for Children and Families does not release figures for towns where there are fewer than 10 food stamp recipients.