Food Stamps to SNAP Essay

Firstly from my prior knowledge I know that Food Stamps are a system of aid used in the United States of America for families that require benefits as a method of surviving hard times. From the cashier’s reaction in the story of “she sneers as Manna pays her with many coloured food stamps”, I am able

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).

My family and I did well on food stamps because we went grocery shopping prior to this assignment, and we generally keep our groceries stocked. We are a family of three who had an allotted amount of $511 for the month, which was a total of $18.25 per day, and we were on food stamps for six days. We spent approximately $50 within those days on mostly unnecessary items because of not being prepared for dinner. However, had we not went grocery shopping and did not have many groceries on hand, this assignment would have been extremely challenging.

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

75% of people eligible for the SNAP program actually use it, 44% of all participants are children and ⅔ of those children live with a single parent, 76% of all benefits go to houses with children, 11.9% og benefits go to the disabled, and 10% goes to senior citizens(“SNAP”). 39.8% of participants are White, 25.5% are Black, 10.9% are Hispanic, 2.4% are Asian, and 1% are Native American(“SNAP”). More than half of the recipients are children or the elderly while the rest are unemployed working age individuals, only about 10% of all recipients receive cash welfare benefits(“SNAP”). Andrew Bernstein said, “Because a disproportionate number of black Americans were poor in the late 1960s, and because the Civil Rights Movement of that era was an attempt to redress a century of racial injustices, the governments war on poverty coalesced into a campaign heavily directed towards blacks… disintegration of the family as the single greatest problem confronting black Americans”(Haugen & DeMott). Undocumented immigrants cannot and have never been able to get benefits, documented immigrants can only get benefits if they have lived in the US for five years, but there are exceptions for this including benefits for refugees, children, and individuals staying in the US to avoid persecution in their own country(“SNAP”). The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation act (PRWORA) enforced welfare

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

Time to go to the grocery store with only $29.00 worth of food stamps for the

Has your welfare benefits been shut down? Food stamps are a stimulus to people who are unemployed and homeless. It’s also a way for people who are working part time making low wages to receive additional assistance from the government. Hardships like this affect our communities with low income or no income. The city of Atlanta, for instance, is rapidly growing. The United States Census Bureau says, “19.2% of Georgians are in poverty today.” Increased from last year, although there are many factors that contribute to poverty today. Atlanta’s efforts rise in poverty, as food stamp cuts and backlogging shortens local incentives in the Atlanta community, which needs to reform policies as spending, and enrollment responsibility. To help those struggling in our community to actively be aware of what is going on in the community.

Throughout my research, I have gathered a lot of useful information about food stamps, also known as Common Benefit Identification Card (CBIC) (New). Food stamps are a valuable resource for many lower class families and less fortunate individuals. It is the nation's highest anti-hunger program and helps many people. According to fns.usda.gov, “Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a recipient to authorize transfer of their government benefits from a Federal account to a retailer account to pay for products received. EBT is used in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. EBT has been implemented in all States since June of

People who can cook and work need to buy all the ingredients, but in reality, it is hard to make time to shop before work or after work. People who have food stamps are low income people who needs to work for hours to support their family. When people who work need to shop, they need to think about open and close time for the grocery store, shopping time, traffic and finding parking space, waiting line to buy, and also time for going back to their house to drop off all the food and going to work if they are planning to shop before their shift. For example, When you go to the Costco or Walmart, there are long lines to purchase and countless cars in the parking lot. Costco is always busy with people that

Money is money but if you’re living in an apartment and rent costs you $400.00 a month, you aren’t going to have enough money. If you get food stamps then you’re getting free money from the state for food. Most people get food stamps because they don’t have a job. You can only get food stamps up to the day you get a job that pays you just enough money to pay for rent and food. “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is the nation's most important anti-hunger program.” In order to get food stamps you have to meet the standards. “Households have to meet income tests unless all members are receiving TANF, SSI, or in some places general assistance. Most households must meet both the gross and net income tests, but a household with an elderly person or a person who is receiving certain types of disability payments only has to meet the net income test. Households, except those noted, that have income over the amounts listed below cannot get SNAP

My mother received SNAP benefits for three months while she was unemployed in 2013, but only received $17 a month for a family of three. The most one can receive in SNAP benefits for a family of three is $497. Now that she has a stable job and can afford groceries without the help of government aid, there is no way she ever spends $497 on food. The people who receive the entire amount allotted for their family size should not receive that much. This is more than enough money for a family of three to eat very well every single day, while there are some people in the lower middle class that cannot afford to have three meals a day. My father, for example, went through a time where he made too much money to receive any type of food stamps from the government, but he could not afford to have three meals a day. When he applied for SNAP benefits, he was denied due to the fact that he made around $1,300 per month, which is not very much because he had to pay for rent, a car payment, car insurance, and the utility bills. It was difficult for him to find enough food to make dinner for two people, if I was there over the weekend. The maximum one can make in monthly gross income for a household of one person is $1,245 to be eligible for SNAP benefits (Saddler, dhs.state.il.us). In Figure 1, there is a chart stating the amount of money a household is expected to receive in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

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.

Unfortunately, in regards to the quantity of programs aiming towards families who need extra assistance the number is rather low. Yes, they’re at least one food bank in each area of Louisiana but what about those with no means of transportation. In fact, in 2013 Snap benefits were cut. For every family of 3 they will now be $29 short totally to $319 from each family altogether. CBPP.com agreed that, “ These cuts will likely cause hardship for some SNAP participants, who will include 22 million children in 2014 (10 million of whom live in “deep poverty,” with family incomes below half of the poverty line) and 9 million people who are elderly or have a serious disability.” Not only is this a bad idea but it is also rather selfish to take from those who need to feed their families.

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