Salon has an article about the growing number of 20-30 yr olds on food stamps during the recession.
These people are unemployed/laid-off but are using their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit cards (aka food stamps) to buy things like roasted rabbit, wild-caught fish, organic asparagus and triple-crème cheese.

Magida, a 30-year-old art school graduate, had been installing museum exhibits for a living until the recession caused arts funding — and her usual gigs — to dry up. She applied for food stamps last summer, and since then she’s used her $150 in monthly benefits for things like fresh produce, raw honey and fresh-squeezed juices from markets near her house in the neighborhood of Hampden, and soy meat alternatives and gourmet ice cream from a Whole Foods a few miles away.

Mak, 31, grew up in Westchester, graduated from the University of Chicago and toiled in publishing in New York during his 20s before moving to Baltimore last year with a meager part-time blogging job and prospects for little else. About half of his friends in Baltimore have been getting food stamps since the economy toppled, so he decided to give it a try; to his delight, he qualified for $200 a month. “I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it’s great that you can get anything.”

Read the whole article here.