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PolitiFact: Rick Perry's accurate claim about children on food stamps

 
DALLAS, TEXAS - JUNE 4:  Former Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks to supporters after announcing that he will run for president in 2016 June 4, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Rick Perry is the tenth Republican to join the race for president in 2016, and also ran for the presidency in 2012.   (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) 554501603
DALLAS, TEXAS - JUNE 4: Former Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks to supporters after announcing that he will run for president in 2016 June 4, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Rick Perry is the tenth Republican to join the race for president in 2016, and also ran for the presidency in 2012. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) 554501603
Published June 5, 2015

The statement

"One out of five of our children live in a family that's on food stamps."

Rick Perry, 2016 presidential candidate, May 16 in Iowa

The ruling

Addressing Iowans, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry said he's optimistic about the country's future once there's a leadership change, even though Americans remain unemployed and children continue to be hungry.

"Now I understand there's pessimism out there and there's good reason for it," the former Texas governor said. "One out of 10 Americans are out of a job or underemployed or just completely quit looking for a job. One out of five of our children live in a family that's on food stamps. What did we have, 0.2 (percent) growth last month? That may be good enough for Barack Obama, it may be good enough for the Democrats, but it's not good enough for me. I know America can do better."

Perry's first couple of figures didn't seem new to us. In April 2015, the federal government announced the economy had grown 0.2 percent in the year's first quarter. And according to the government, 10.8 percent of the American workforce in April 2015 was unemployed, underemployed or wanting a job but not lately looking — compared to 12.3 percent a year before.

For this fact check, we wondered if one child in five lives in a family on food stamps, meaning government aid for buying groceries.

A note: Paper food stamps have not existed for nearly a decade since Congress in 2008 required states to shift to plastic cards, like credit cards, that may be presented at checkout stands. The onetime Food Stamps Program is now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. (In January 2010, the Smithsonian acquired ye olden food stamps for possible exhibits, J.C. Dwyer, a Texas anti-hunger activist, pointed out to us.)

To our inquiry, Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said Perry reached his statement based on a February U.S. Census Bureau press release stating the number of children receiving SNAP benefits remains higher than it was before the start of the Great Recession in 2007. In 2014, the release said, an estimated 16 million children, or about one in five, received the assistance, compared with the roughly 9 million, or one in eight, getting such help before the recession. The bureau said the declared 2014 ratio was based on responses to a supplemental part of its 2014 Current Population Survey.

We followed up with the Census Bureau, where demographer Jonathan Vespa said by email that Perry got it right.

We rate this claim True.

W. Gardner Selby, PolitiFact Texas

Edited for print. Read the full version at PolitiFact.com.