The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

"The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) provides benefits to low-income households to help them purchase food. The program is an “automatic stabilizer,” meaning that its number of beneficiaries and amount of spending increase
automatically during tough economic times. In fiscal year 2011, total federal expenditures on SNAP—$78 billion— and participation in the program (measured as the number of participants and as a share of the U.S. population) were the highest they have ever been. In an average
month that year, nearly 45 million people (or one in seven U.S. residents) received SNAP benefits ..."