That's how many Illinois households were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) this December, according to data obtained by the Sun-Times. The figure represents a 12 percent jump from one year ago.

Illinois' unemployment rate may be falling, but hunger continues to rise. In 2009, 17.2 percent of Illinois households qualified as "food insecure," meaning that at one point in the year, the family did not have enough money to purchase food. The Greater Chicago Food Depository -- which provides food to over 650 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in Cook County -- told the paper that it's witnessed "a roughly 65 percent to 70 percent increase in individuals served at its pantries since 2007." And while Congress included additional support for the successful (and stimulative) food assistance program in the Obama administration's economic recovery package, emergency funding will be cut short earlier than anticipated because Republicans insisted that a critical state aid package this summer be "deficit neutral." If these trends continue, lawmakers in the capitol may have to rework the terms of that Faustian bargain.