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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

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The U.S.D.A has paid benefits to low and no-income families living in the U.S. since 1933. The method that was most recently chosen to assist these families was the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps, is a federal nutrition program that allows these low and no-income families to purchase healthy and nutritional food based on their spending capability. This paper will explain the history of food assistance programs, the current provisions for SNAP, and my personal opinion on the SNAP program. The foundation for SNAP started as the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933. It was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a result of the Great depression and the abundant price drop in crops. In 1939, Secretary …show more content…

(The History of SNAP, P.1). The first FSP program used a system of orange and blue stamps. The orange stamps allowed people to buy food and household items. For every $1 that was spent on orange stamps, ₵50 was received in blue stamps. The blue stamps could only be used for items identified as surplus such as dry beans, flour, corn meal, eggs and fresh vegetables. (United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Science, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) A Short History of SNAP. P.1) The program ended in 1943 following the economic boom from involvement in World War II.
On February 2, 1961, John F. Kennedy enacted a food stamp pilot program. The pilot program required that the food stamps be purchased, but eliminated special stamps for surplus foods. Mr. and Mrs. Alderson Muncy of Paynesville, West Virginia, received the first food stamps ever on May 29, 1961. By 1964 President Johnson asked Congress to make the FSP permanent. One of the official purposes of the Food Stamp Act of 1964 was to support the agricultural economy and provide enhanced nutrition for low-income households. There were certain …show more content…

There are 37,404 households that use SNAP, according to Characteristics of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2013. 53% of the households receiving SNAP benefits are below the poverty level, which means more then half. (Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Policy Support. P.1). The amount of people who genuinely need this program far outnumbers the amount who take advantage of it. Without it, low and no-income families don’t have the means to get the nutrition and quality of food they need. The United States should continue this program because it is solving some of the problems poverty and hunger present. SNAP also allows people of all socioeconomic classes to have the same spending capacity when purchasing groceries, and that means a lot for the less

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