We the United States Department of Agriculture have seen that the so called Food Stamps program, also known as SNAP is being abused by irresponsible adults that use the money provided by the government to buy junk food. Not only are the people of the United States buying none-nutritional food, but they are being misinformed on how to use this government help properly. We as the leaders of the United States must put a stop to this growing problem that is filling the American homes of this nation. We, as part of the governing body of this nation should regulate the kind of food that each individual is buying, through the Food Stamp program. Luxuries shouldn’t be able to be bought through Food Stamps, only the necessary and essential items.
For each of these three recommended actions to be implemented into policy, several things need to occur. For the SNAP policy update and increase in funding recommendation, a general consensus among the United States Department of Agriculture needs to be on board that this is a necessary action. The USDA regulates the SNAP program, so they are the primary agency that would update the policies to further enhance eligible food items and restrict purchasing of unhealthy food. They have the resources of dieticians and medical doctors that understand nutrition, and can differentiate between what healthy and unhealthy food products are. They already have restrictions based on eligible food items, but they do not have any restrictions based on the
A Wide majority of people with food stamps don’t spend that money on the food. They’ll buy clothes or toys and ruin their opportunity to put that money where it needs to
Recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program (S.N.A.P.), also known as the U.S. Food Stamp Program, have become extremely controversial. Whether Congress was wrong to reduce funding to the program remains a question. There are two principles that may be used to represent each side of this debate. The difference principle will be used to represent those who believe the program cuts were unjustified and the harm principle will be used to represent those who believe the program cuts were justified.
For states that have needed more help to become healthier in their food choices such as southern states like Alabama and Georgia, they could receive a higher rebate of $0.45 for every dollar they spend on fruits and vegetables. Adding this incentive into the program is expected to actually increase consumption of fruits and vegetables by twenty-five percent, according to the Healthy Incentives Pilot program in Massachusetts. This policy should be enacted because as of right now there is no other way to promote spending on healthier choices when the prices on these choices are already so high for low-income families. In order to expand the SNAP program to fund this incentive, we need to allow for more government spending on this program. Though this would lead to higher debt for our domestic consumption, it would help those in the U.S. who have virtually nothing to eat. We plan on getting the money to fund this by allocating money from other unneeded government purchases such as the ones in our so called, “waste book”.
The federal government pays 100% of SNAP benefits and the program administration costs are split approximately 50% with the states. No one will argue the social importance of food stamps with the program assisting nearly 5 million a year to feed their families. This morale commitment comes with a price and any deficit reduction strategy will require difficult choices. Program elimination is clearly not an option but state empowerment is a strong avenue to pursue. States have a role in the welfare of their citizens and it is time for that responsibility to be resourced. My recommendation is to require the states to pay 25% of the food stamp costs combined with ensuring able-bodied adults are scrutinized. Implementation of this recommendation will create a debt reduction of $220 billion to the federal
A History of Food Stamps The primary goal of food stamps is to increase food security and reduce national hunger in the United States. Each year, out of the one trillion dollars that the United States Government has to spend on assistance and welfare, food stamps takes up about 70 billion dollars (The History of NAP). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or previously known as the “Food Stamp Program) started through the Agriculture Adjustment Act (AAA) and since then has spread around its influence and authority and grown in size (Mary Clare Jalonick Associated). Throughout the past 80 years, the Food Stamp Program has been modified and reformatted, and today it aids more than 44 million Americans (Rude, Emelyn).
The federal food stamp program (SNAP), makes up the largest portion of the budget for the US Department of Agriculture.1 In New York alone 15.3% of residents receive benefits from the SNAP program.2 The purpose of SNAP is to provide nutrition to low-income citizens, however SNAP beneficiaries experience higher rates of obesity compared non-reciepiants.3 According to a report published by the USDA, Americans use food stamps to buy more than $600 million worth of “sweetened beverages,” and bought hundreds of millions more of junk food and sugary snacks.4 Lack of regulation and reform to the SNAP program is causing harm to the public.
only conviction, and twelve states have eliminated the ban entirely. Lastly, women are disproportionately affected by such provisions since they are the primary recipient of these welfare benefits. Since the adoption of the welfare reform law of 1996, an estimated of 92,000 women in 23 states, which more than half of them were African American and Latina (Mauer, 2003). Public Assistance such as food stamps is a critical component to support their family, how the state handles the loss of eligibility varies, with some actions being more punitive than others. For example, Texas has a lifetime ban on food stamps for people convicted of a drug felony. The state loses out on federal funds that could be used to help people with drug felony convictions
Tom Vilsack once said “The lack of access to proper nutrition is not only fueling obesity, it is leading to food insecurity and hunger among our children”. In recent years an unruly amount of homes were classified as food insecure, which is a government measurement for when all people are not able to access nutritious foods to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Hunger is a worldwide problem and is also a crisis in the United States of America. Because of this concern the federal government configured a temporary solution for society, called Food Stamps or now known as SNAPS. SNAPS stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Although this program helps to alleviate America’s hunger problems, it also created a new problem in the
The supplemental nutrition assistance program –SNAP helps families in domestic hunger safety. Most might refer to them as Food stamps. SNAP is helpful for people who need assistance facing poverty. The Hamilton Project says, “This makes it the country’s most critical tool in battling poverty. The program kept 4.9 million out of poverty in 2012.” Many may argue, why are people still being unassisted in receiving SNAP benefits? As Michael Tanner writes in his policy analysis, “Snap is a deeply troubled program that has high administrative costs and significant levels of fraud and abuse” (1). Which leads me to say, it is time for the state to
This writing will be about the usage of food stamps, or maybe I should say the abuse of food stamps. I see a lot of food stamp abuse in my work environment and i would like to find out how they really work and if the system is really abused. I intend to learn and research about the background of food stamps and how the system really got started along with its original intentions. I would also like to research people's personal encounters with them, may it be what they have seen or the stories of the people who actually have them, whether they abuse them or use them for their good.
Statistically, I should be a failure. I am three times more likely to become a teen parent than those with mothers who did not have children in their teens. I am more likely to have a mental illness than my peers because of the absence of a steady father figure in early childhood. Due to my poor financial status during a large part of my life, I am less likely to succeed in school and more likely to go to jail. No statistics could have predicted that I would be sitting in a room with the best of my peers debating bills at Alabama Girls State.
There is many illegal activities committed by those that obtain food stamps. Something has to be done in order for those abusing the assistance
In the following paper, the topic of food stamps or the official name Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which is defined on the government website as “SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities. SNAP is the largest program in the domestic hunger safety net”.(2017) The argument in the paper is the fighting for or against the continuation of SNAP within the United States of America. Some main points that will be covered in this essay are if SNAP should be continued, should or should not there be an increase in the amount of money given to people on welfare and food stamps, and should the government drug test people that want food stamps.
The start of the Food Stamp Program, now known as SNAP, began after the Great Depression in 1939 (Caswell, & Yaktin, 2013). Henry Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, and Milo Perkins, the program’s first Administrator, are among the most notable people in starting the program (USDA, 2017b). The main goal of the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, a nonprofit and noncapital corporation, was to encourage the consumption of surplus food in the United States as a form of unemployment benefit. This program entailed people to purchase orange stamps for $1, up to the amount they usually spent on groceries, for every dollar they spend they received blue stamps worth 50 cents. Blue stamps were used to purchase foods that the USDA said to be in surplus; orange stamps