Does you or anyone you know use the government Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)? For those who don’t know, SNAP is a food program for low-income individuals and families which provides a monthly stipend on a card for a range of basic groceries and food supplies. SNAP is the largest program of its kind in America and can be used to buy a variety of necessities for the home, with some basic exceptions.
Still, the Trump administration has recently called into question what SNAP benefits should and shouldn’t entail for users.
Though nothing has officially passed yet, several major changes to the program have been proposed.
Perhaps above all, the government has suggested that those on SNAP lose their ability to choose what to buy with their benefits card. Instead, the suggestion has been that recipients would instead get a “USDA Foods package” which would include “shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit, vegetables and meat, poultry or fish.” One of the biggest things that this proposal would remove is a family’s ability to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for themselves.
There are more reasons and implications behind this plan as well.
The idea of shaking up SNAP is primarily designed to a be a cost-cutting measure.
According to NPR, these new changes are designed to make SNAP more cost-effective for the government, with the intention of reducing the program’s cost by $213 billion over the next 10 years. If implemented, the new rules would mark a radical shift in how SNAP benefits are distributed. Currently, the system works from the “bottom up,” with consumers able to shop at stores they choose, when they choose. In the new system, it seems, all benefits would be centrally distributed from the top down—creating some new and potentially staggering logistical problems.
Many people around the internet have sounded off with their criticisms of the proposed changes:
Though it remains to be seen if the changes will go through as proposed, the suggestions remain very controversial.
For those who want to read about how SNAP currently works, check out the USDA page on the program to read the specifics and to avoid any misinformation you may have read on the internet. If you or those you know are currently using these benefits, what do you think about these proposals? Let us know in the comments area below.
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