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The New Hampshire Food Stamp Program

March 10, 2017 State Economy
vegetables

The New Hampshire Food Stamp Program, also known by the federal designation Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provides resources to eligible individuals to purchase certain food items at grocery stores and other participating food retailers. SNAP benefits are designed to provide the difference between the cost of a nutritionally adequate food plan (designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) and 30 percent of the net household income, which is the portion expected to be used on food. The federal government funds 100 percent of SNAP benefits, and the cost of state-level administration is split evenly with the state government.

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The State of Working New Hampshire

April 27, 2016 State Economy
grocery store cashier smiling

In its present state, the New Hampshire economy offers a number of encouraging signs. Both employment – the total number of people working in the Granite State – and economic output – the value of the goods and services those individuals produce – have been on the rise over the past several years. Yet, the state of working New Hampshire – the circumstances faced by many individual workers and their families – is somewhat less favorable. Moreover, recent years have seen a continuation of a longer-term shift in the types of jobs available in the Granite State, with service sector employment – and the comparatively lower wages associated with it – becoming more prominent.

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Taking the Measure of Need in the Granite State

March 24, 2016 State Economy
mother and sleeping baby at table

New Hampshire’s poverty rate of 9.2 percent was the lowest in the nation in 2014. While that distinction should inspire some pride, it should not engender complacency, for, as a means of assessing economic security, official federal poverty statistics often come up short. Indeed, economists and other analysts have long understood that the federal poverty threshold does not accurately reflect the level of income required to secure basic necessities, particularly in a state like New Hampshire, where the cost of living tends to be higher than in many other parts of the country.

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Food Insecurity in New Hampshire Remains Higher Than Pre-Recession Levels

21 Sep 2017

tree with coins

A report released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service shows food insecurity nationally remained at roughly the same level in 2016, 12.3 percent of all households, as in 2015. Food insecurity is higher both nationally and in New Hampshire in the last three years than ten years ago, before the Great Recession. Although progress has been made nationally relative to the next most recent three-year period, New Hampshire has seen no statistically significant change in food insecurity between the last two three-year periods measured, and food insecurity remains higher above pre-Recession levels than the nation as a whole.