Single Mothers, Emergency Food Assistance, and Food Stamps in the Welfare Reform Era

Abstract

This article documents the characteristics, circumstances, and factors linked to concurrent use of food stamps among single‐mother food pantry clients in Wisconsin in 1999. Most of these mothers use food pantries as an alternative, rather than a supplement, to food stamps, despite appearing to meet food stamp income criteria. Concurrent food stamp use is more common among mothers with weaker employment ties, more recent welfare involvement, and residence in a county that experienced smaller food stamp caseload declines in the welfare reform years.