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Food Stamp History

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Ta-Talinda Bain HUMS 101 12F Food Stamps History in America: A Way of Life? There was a surplus of farmer’s foods when the great depression started in America. The price for food had fallen from 109 in 1919 to 64 in 1931. The Federal Farm Board bought millions of bushels of wheat and bales of cotton to try to stave off some the minor surplus on the market. It was a temporary situation that did not help deal with the overproduction. The Government had to announce they were pulling out of the wheat market in 1931 which plunged the Kansas City price down to 27 cents a bushel. Many could not survive the sudden drop in the stock market. The Federal Farm Board made many enemies with their actions. “(Poppendieck & Nestle) The result of the overwhelming …show more content…

He signed an Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) that created the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation. This program bought basic commodities and distributed them to relief agencies. In 1939, Henry Wallace created the Food Stamp Plan. May, 1939, Mabel McFiggin, an unemployed factory worker was the first to collect stamps to buy surplus foods in Rochester, N.Y. During the Depression, many found need of assistance. That was the first preliminary program to help the needy started by President Roosevelt. “Food stamps originally came in two colors: recipients bought orange stamps, which could be used for any kind of food, and they were given half that amount in free blue stamps, which could be used to buy designated surplus foods (all but the most destitute had to make some payment to receive food stamps until 1977)(James, 2009).” This type of food stamps helped about 20 million people until 1943. The income distribution to the farmers over the next thirty years was based on how much land was owned or the amount of commodities produced. This benefitted the larger farms including those who worked the farms, insurance companies, and farming corporations who owned most of it. That created inequality among the share croppers and tenant farmers that were reduced to day laborers or forced off their lands. As America became less impoverished, stamps were no longer needed until the hunger in America rose again in …show more content…

93-86, Aug. 10, 1973) required States to expand the program to every political jurisdiction before July 1, 1974; expanded the program to drug addicts and alcoholics in treatment and rehabilitation centers; established semi-annual allotment adjustments, SSI cash-out, and bi-monthly issuance; introduced statutory complexity in the income definition (by including in-kind payments and providing an accompanying exception); and required the Department to establish temporary eligibility standards for disasters. This legislation also added a new category of eligible purchases with SNAP benefits - seeds and plants which produce food for human

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