A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows the number of poorest Americans continues to grow and county assistance experts say it's growing at an alarming rate.
The report shows twenty percent of all households who get food stamps have no actual cash income. In Ohio, that's about 300 thousand people.
Director or The Athens County Job and Family Services, Jack Frech, says food stamps alone can't provide for an average family of three.
They say the problem is state not giving the center enough money to provide enough cash assistance and for longer periods of time.
"These are families that are trying to survive on basically a hand full of food stamps alone but have no cash whatsoever which means they have no money to pay for rent. They have no money to pay for diapers, to pay for soaps, to pay for toilet paper or transportation. I think people don't necessarily understand that food stamps are only intended to provide 75 percent of the food that you need."
Frech adds, "cash assistance programs don't cover as many people as they used to. They're time limited now, a lot more families have been sanctioned. There are fewer programs out there for people who don't have children. The consequence in cutting back on our safety net programs has resulted in this."
