It means that amid the worst economy since the Great Depression, a group of people nearly equal in number to the population of Salt Lake City left $9,604,373 in benefits per month on the table, coalition figures show.
That money could be stimulating the local economy, benefiting both low-income people who need food as well as the merchants who sell it.
So why is this occurring?
It's a complex question, rooted in the mysteries of human nature; the impediments of bureaucracy - real or imagined; and simple ignorance.
"I never realized I was eligible," said Mica Lopez, 27, a former University City business consultant who was out of work for six months.
During that time, Lopez was taking in a small amount of money - much less than 160 percent of the poverty level, which is the upper limit for SNAP in Pennsylvania. (In New Jersey, it's 185 percent of the poverty level.)
That means that a single person in Pennsylvania can have an income of around $17,000 a year and still be able to receive food stamps.
"The program was very helpful," said Lopez, who has since found another job and no longer needs food stamps. "I was having to choose between food and medicine. That's not a choice I would want for anybody."
There were 439,245 Philadelphians on food stamps as of December 2010, coalition figures show.
But there should have been 630,196 residents receiving them, according to coalition estimates. That means that just 71 percent of eligible recipients were accessing SNAP.
"A certain percentage either don't know they're eligible or are new to living in poverty because the recession has thrown them from a stable position," said Carey Morgan, the Coalition Against Hunger's executive director.
People who have grown up in poverty learn about SNAP from friends and relatives, Morgan said. But, she added, those who recently lost their jobs in the recession don't know how to negotiate the safety-net bureaucracy - and are often loath to try.
