Assistance For Low Income Individuals And Families

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.

Food stamps are an important component of low-income families’ monthly resources, increasing the chances that families are able to meet basic needs (Ratcliffe, McKernan & Finegold, 2008). This form of food relief dates back to the Great Depression when many Americans lost their jobs and did not have money to feed their families. People were starving while farmers produced abundant crop that could not be sold due to a lack of consumers with buying power (Dorsch, 2013). The Federal Surplus Relief Corporation which was a part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, bought basic farm goods at low prices and distributed the among hunger relief agencies in different states and local communities (Congressional Digest, 2013).

SNAP is the foundation of nutrition assistance programs. This program provides over 47 million individuals in nearly 23 million low-income households. The eligibility is not restricted to certain groups of individuals, and because of this, SNAP serves a vast amount of families with children, elderly people, and individuals with disabilities. Others eligible for SNAP include families with adults who work in low-wage jobs, unemployed workers, and those with a fixed income. The SNAP Program assists about 72 percent of people who live in households with children. Nearly 25 percent of households with seniors and individuals with disabilities, are also assisted (Rosenbaum, 2013).

Did you know that 17% of Americans in rural areas live below the poverty line, and out of those 17%, 15 million of those individuals are children? (Hunger In America 2014). The month of September was Hunger Action month and many individuals helped raise awareness by taking the Food Stamp (SNAP) Challenge. This challenge consists of an individual living on the SNAP balance of a $6-7 per day budget for food. Many individuals came to the realization that this is a difficult budget, and does not meet the nutritional needs for a family.

In the United States of America, there is enough food in this country that the total amount of agricultural exports is enough to feed everyone twice over (Dorsch, 2013). The problem is that even though there is so much food in this country millions of people require assistance to purchase the food and feed their families. Dating back almost 100 years, the now called Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) has evolved to keep up with the changing needs of the Country. In 1933 SNAP was built into Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The AAA was put into law during the great depression. The purpose of the law was to help farmers deal with the excess supply of crops by having the government subsidize the cost. The government would also distribute these crops to relief agencies and local communities (The History of SNAP). In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Food Stamp Act. With this legislation enacted it was now required to purchase stamps. These stamps also had bonus amounts that were determined by income level. In the 90’s and early 2000s major changes were done to SNAP. The electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card was

Food stamps have helped a lot of people out and I have no doubt about that in my mind. Many families depend on

Medicaid, WIC Programs, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as “food stamps”, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and HUD which deals with housing are only a few of the programs that are available for the poor and underemployed today. These government programs cost the taxpayers billions of dollars. State and federal government try every year to reduce programs. In Mississippi, Medicaid has been reduced although children and the disabled are still covered. SNAP commonly known as food stamps have also been reduce and restricted to balance both the state and federal government. At the height of the recession, the last few years, has increased the number of single bread winner families seeking help by applying for government welfare programs. We often hear of people selling their food stamps for things that are not approved. These stories are used by the people who do not think that tax money should be used to support people who do not work. Changing the name of “welfare” to TANF has not slowed the

Eligibility cuts, are cuts that eliminate eligibility for certain categories of households. States will have to cut an average of 10 million people from the program each year from 2021-2026. States also have the choice by lowering the income by providing less money to the programs every month. To achieve a 29 percent overall the House will have to lower the SNAP income limit to a solid 68 percent of the poverty level. The current federal limit is 130 percent of the poverty level. The benefit cuts are cuts that come across the board, states would have to cut an average of more than $40 person per month in 2021-2026. This would require to set the maximum amount to 77 percent of the cost plan for the Thrifty Food Plan, the Agriculture Department, to estimate the cost of nutritional food. With this being such a change families of four will have a significant cut in their families budget. The benefit cuts will cost a family of four nearly $165 per month or close to $2,000 per year

Research has found that SNAP participants often participate in other public assistance programs (Cody, et al., 2007; Moffit, 2015). Literature has also shown that individual work status of prime age adults is related to SNAP participation; prime age adults with children or who participate in other assistance program that also participate in SNAP often are working low income households (Zedlewski & Rader, 2005). Acs and Schwabish (2011) examine the relationship between SNAP participation and work status given national level policy changes to the SNAP program in the Food Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. They find after 2002 fewer individuals left the program overall and this effect was not limited to long term recipients. Suggesting the changes in SNAP policy encouraged more recipients to seek work and still receive SNAP and did not necessarily increase the number of working households to newly join SNAP. Between 2002 and 2007 SNAP participation among low-income families whom work grew by 10% (Cody, et al., 2007;Ratcliffe, Mckernan, & FInegold,

I believe that everyone has the right to health care, especially if health conditions calls for it. I do not think income level or the type of insurance should dictate the eligibility or quality of care. By using that criteria, we are implying that certain groups of people deserves to be taken care of and have good health while others do not deserve it. I believe healthcare should be accessible to all as a basic human right.

There are several forms of social welfare services that can be beneficial to individuals and families that need of some resources of assistance. Such as, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, also known as, TANF. There is help within child support, benefits for immigrants, Medicaid. There is a program called, The Child Nutrition Program, this allows children to have reduce price or free lunches while they attend school. There is another program through social services which is The Food Stamp Program for individuals or families that fit under the budget bracket. In my opinion, I feel that every program that is provided through Social Welfare Services is significant for anyone who is in need of assistance of any kind. If I was in a situation

The government provides many federal funding program funding programs that help out the poor community such as SNAP which was previously referred to as food stamps, Women Infants and Children (WIC) and other community help programs. Sure, people are not dying of hunger, but Living in poverty still creates issues that prevent people from exiting their bad economic situation. The longer a person stays in poverty the more likely they are to make bad decisions, as they are not thinking level mindedly; they are only concerned with survival. Even something as simple as a credit cards can leave a person with some heavy debt that just keeps adding up overtime if payments are not being done on time, because the poor are in a terrible situation

The SNAP program is based on the gross income a family makes and does not take into account the expenses that the family has such as school loans, car payments, and even household items such as diapers. Due to this system, many people who are working and making an effort to improve their lives are unable to make progress because this type of

Summary: There has been a program run by the federal government specifically intending to help low-income families get money into their savings account called the Assets for Independence Program. Ultimately they are rewarding low-income families for putting aside money into savings. For every dollar they put aside, the government matches it. They have recently discovered after running this program for 20 years that it is in fact successful. People that are part of this program have acquired more money in their savings accounts opposed to those who are not participants in this program, studies show nearly four times more on average. They finally decided to look into the effects of this program because some states are creating similar programs

Skepticism of people’s true need ties into the support of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formally known as Food Stamps. By the 1990’s conservatives and some liberals argued that the Johnson-era reforms had created a culture of dependency on government aid. In 1996 Congress overhauled the welfare system by imposing work requirements and putting time limits on cash payments to the needy. This act caused the SNAP rolls to drop, but the economic crisis that began in 2007 pushed the national unemployment rate above 9 percent. With unemployment at an all-time high this forced millions of families to seek government aid. In response to this new need the SNAP program was expanded as part of the stimulus package in 2009. This expansion was intended to be a temporary fix with cuts to the program to being in 2013. The thought