Recently there have been reports that a record amount of SNAP benefits were spent at military commissaries - $103.6 Million in FY 2013.
This is true, however it might lead some to misinterpret the data as reflecting the amount received by all military personnel.
There are 5,000 active military members receiving SNAP benefits, and 900,000 veterans on SNAP. One might be inclined to add those numbers together, and then divide it into the dollar amount spent in order to calculate the average benefit per military member. But that math doesn't work.
In my bad-math example, 905,000 people spent $103.6 Million, for an average of $114 per year, per person, or a little less than $10 per month, per military member. It should be noted that that person is the head of household, often with dependents relying on the same SNAP benefit.
The average SNAP benefit is closer to $125 per month, per person, so a family of four would receive 4x the average, or $500 a month.
The problem with this math is it only applies to what's been spent at military commissaries, and there are almost 20x 200x more veterans receiving SNAP than active members. Not many military retirees live close enough to the base to shop at the commissary, so that $103.6 Million dollar number really only reflects the amount spent by active military members who live on base.
The take-away here is that $100 Million only scratches the surface of the amount that our service members receive in SNAP.