the case of SNAP, Milam says there is an incentive to work built into the system, which decreases benefits as a person earns income, but at a staggered rate. In practice this means that someone will benefit more by working and having their assistance reduced slowly (or stopped altogether when their income becomes high enough) than by remaining on SNAP long term. As I have slowly come to terms with our current situation, I have started to venture out of our cave. It's with a mixture of relief and sadness that I learn of other families lumped into the 47 percent. A former colleague and friend of my husband's also lost her job this year. Her family spent six months receiving federal assistance, from unemployment to medical assistance to emergency cash. In recent years, she has battled cancer and watched the business she and her husband owned go under. Then she became "the woman at Safeway using food stamps." This summer she found a job in another state 1,600 miles away. Although she and her husband had to sell their home and her family won't have health coverage for another 90 days until her new employer's policy begins, she says she is "hopeful calm will be coming soon." And that friend pushing his little ones in the stroller? Food assistance recipient. He has more than 25 years' experience in his field and his wife has a master's degree, yet "here we are, jobless." His wife is working toward starting a