It’s higher than you think. Smart of the NYTimes to run this major piece on Food Stamps on the weekend following Thanksgiving. The number of food stamp recipients has risen by nearly 10 million over the past two years; the program that now feeds 1 in 8 Americans and nearly 1 in 4 children. Click for an interactive graphic that gives a county by county numbers.

You will remember it was just two weeks ago that Kathy pointed to the The USDA’s 2008 report finding that hunger in U.S. at a 14-year high, “a third of these struggling households had what the researchers called ‘very low food security,’ meaning lack of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year.”