A Gardening Assistance Program

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers food assistance programs that help provide food for low to no income families. It is their goal to increase food security and reduce hunger by increasing access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education for low-income Americans (Caswell, 2013, para. 1). Some of the current nutrition assistance programs include “the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)”(Caswell, 2013, para. 1). SNAP will be the primary nutrition assistance program of the paper at hand. No matter how morally good it is to try to help reduce hunger and increase food security within the United States, there are still many questions regarding issues with SNAP. This paper will be discussing why there is such a strong support for the program, how it helps the United States as a whole, problems with the program, and why some people are against SNAP.

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.

In the United State, there is a federal nutrition program for low income people to help food budget and buy healthy food. People who have low income in the United States get the food stamps, also known as “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)”. For every month, eligible people who have low income get benefits deposited in to their EBT account. Once they get food stamp, people can purchase food items including seeds and plants to grow food in their house or backyard. It can be used at a grocery store, a supermarket, a farmer 's market, and a shelter that serves meals. However, with all these great benefits, people still eat unhealthy because of too much time consuming, limited money, some food dessert area, and the benefits allow people to eat junk food.

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

As the US national debt nears $20 trillion, government programs are being looked to be cut, one of those being the SNAP program. SNAP is a federal program which offers nutrition assistance to low income families, by use of food-stamps, while also providing economic benefits to communities (“Supplemental”). SNAP is the largest program in domestic hunger safety (“Supplemental”), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) works with nutrition educators, faith based organizations, and neighborhood organizations to help those eligible for the SNAP program make informed decisions about applying (“Supplemental”). The FNS also works with the retail community and State partners to improve the program’s integrity and administration (“Supplemental”). The SNAP

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Forty-nine million Americans live in food insecure households in today 's society”. This is the problem that the current SNAP program isn’t addressing, that funding is not enough to help these forty-nine million Americans struggling to get enough food to feed themselves and their families. We need to provide them the food that they need in order to survive, but we also must devise a plan to give them the healthiest and inexpensive choices that they deserve. For example, why would it make sense that on average a box of strawberries is more expensive than a bag of chips and it holds less nutritional value? For those that are poor in our society and cannot afford healthy eating, they

Did you know in 2014, 48.1 million households in the United States were food insecure? (Feeding America, 2016) Additionally, household with children reported higher rates of food insecurity compared to households without children. According to new research, a great proportion of college students are suffering from food insecurity (Hughes et al., 2011; Patton-Lopez et al., 2014). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, food insecurity is defined by “the state of being without reliable access to sufficient quantity of affordable nutritious food” (2015). Since 2006, the USDA introduced new terms to categorize food insecurity ranges. Marginal food security is described as “anxiety over food sufficiency or shortage of food in the house. Little or no change in diet” (Gaines et al., n.d.). Low food security “reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet without reduced food intake. Very low food security “disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.”

In the United States, there is a substantial number of children that live below the federal poverty line and even more that live below twice the poverty line (Jackson, 2014). According to Jackson (2014), poverty and food insecurity are undeniably related and these children living below the federal poverty line are at risk for varying negative effects, such as delayed cognitive development and medical problems, that hunger can cause. There is a variety of nutritional policies that help these children as well as adults who live in economically disadvantaged and food-insecure households such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) (Jackson, 2014; Marx, Broussard, Hopper, & Worster, 2010). This program

Food stamps are government-issued coupons for low income families. People in America like to take advantage of those coupons and use them for unhealthy food and drinks. In SNAP households, soft drinks are ranked the second highest purchase (Tanner). SNAP is the formerly known program for food stamps. In one study, low income women admitted their babies into a government nutrition assistance program. Researchers confirmed that “The rate of youngsters at risk for obesity fell during the study, from almost 15 percent in 2010 to 12 percent overall in 2014” (Tanner). In that study, the government took control of what food stamps were available, and the obesity rates fell among the families. Additionally, another survey published by SNAP provides a glimpse into the shopping cart of a typical house. As said by a group of Stanford researchers, “Banning sugary drinks for SNAP would be expected to significantly reduce obesity prevalence and type 2 diabetes incidence” (O’Connor). Here, it means, that instead of promoting unhealthy food, the government can give out food stamps that are a healthier alternative for the public . Although this may be true, some people consider that it is society’s responsibility to be healthy. Ryan Schwertfeger, president of the Student Senate concludes, “Those who make healthy choices will have no reason to suffer or worry about those

Federal nutrition assistance programs, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP) and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program, offer a variety of nutrition education for every family member. Families learn how to eat healthier meals and snacks and stretch food dollars. A 2011 survey of SNAP stakeholders found majority support for monetary incentives for fruits and vegetables and restricting soda and other foods of little nutritional value (Blumenthal et al, 2014). These programs help target modifiable risk factors and effectively decrease preventable chronic disease, and therefore disparities. The World Public Health Nutrition Association defines nutrition education as any combination

My idea is that Miller High School will start a vegetable garden which will serve as an educational tool. The produce, grown by the students, will be used for school meals. The students will develop an appreciation for the time and effort they put into growing their vegetables. In addition the produce will be fresh, unlike the current food.

In the U.S., obesity rates are constantly rising. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, shows that, in the U.S., “more than 1 in 3 adults are considered to be obese, … and more than 1 in 6 children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are considered to be obese” (Overweight). In 2008, the Food Stamp Program, renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), had the highest number of beneficiaries since its inception in 1968 (Cancio). “As of late 2009, about 40 million people were enrolled in the program, amounting to about 1 in 8 adults and 1 in 4 children in the United States” (Cancio). 28.1% of people on food stamps are obese, while only 17.5% of nonrecipients of the food stamp are considered obese (Baum). This disparity is likely due, in part, to the accessibility of calorie-dense junk food. One way to increase the accessibility of healthy food to these low-income individuals is by alloacating a certain amount of food stamp money to certain healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. By partially restricting one’s personal freedom to choose what and how much they consume, the health of the American population will become less affected by mental and physical diseases caused by poor diet, and the efficiency of the U.S. economy will improve because less money will be needed to help treat obesity.

The purpose of this speech is to provide information and encourage city residents to invest in gardens in their neighborhoods by showing that community gardens increase property value as well as improve the emotional and physical well-being of their citizens who participate in the project. Additionally, community fruit and vegetable gardens can help provide fresh produce for residents on fixed incomes for little to no cost outside of volunteer time.

The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and Women’s, Infants and Children benefit programs are designed to give the recipients additional resources in order to help their households function. SNAP currently has no restrictions on types of food that are available to purchase. WIC, on the other hand, has more limits on what food items recipients can purchase. These two programs total to affect 56.6 million people. The proposed legislation states that SNAP users are only allowed to purchase staple food items and now allows WIC recipients to purchase white potatoes. Changes to the SNAP and WIC legislation would positively effect staple food items such as rice and potatoes, while foods used highly in processed foods like sugar and

In 2014, a foundation called Feeding America did a survey on the people they serve and found that in order to stretch their food budgets 79% of them purchase inexpensive and unhealthy food in order to stay fed. This can seriously impact their health, because no matter the age, healthy bodies and minds require nutritious meals. In some cases, food insecurity can even lead to Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. These are just a few examples of why food insecurity is so harmful. Fortunately, there are many organizations, clubs, and foundations that are committed to ending hunger in America, and eventually the world. The first step to solving this problem is spreading information, and realizing just how dangerous food insecurity is, and who it affects. After learning these things, you may want to help and there are many ways to do that. I’m sure in the past, you've donated food to the annual canned food drive our school puts on, and that’s just one way you can contribute to solving this problem. There are many organizations that ask for donations and will put your money to great use, for example every dollar you donate to Feeding America will provide 11 meals for a child in need.If you don’t have food or money to donate, you can donate