Figures show 15% of the population in the United States is on food stamps.
The number of people using federal funded debit cards to buy food has increased 74% since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to widespread job losses.
Almost 46 million Americans are now receiving this assistance.
In May this year, a third of all people in Alabama were on food stamps - though part of that was because of emergency assistance after a series of tornadoes.
Washington DC, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon and Tennessee all had about a fifth of their population on food stamps that month.
