- Of course food stamp usage has increased in the last few years, due to the whole worst-recession-since-the-Great-Depression thing. Increased payments during a time of skyrocketing unemployment are a feature of a functioning social safety net, not a bug. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2013/06/12/house-and-senate-farm-bills-cut-food-stamps 359 comments politics