2017-04-20 Thu

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or “SNAP” launched as a part of War of Poverty in the 1960s is America’s largest and most important nutrition assistance program. It provides people with low-income food stamps that are used as money to buy food.

These stamps were recently replaced by electronic debit cards to ensure there are no frauds. The more money you make, the less food assistance you get. In all, the federal government spent about $80 billion on the program, with the states chipping in a few billion more.

When people bought food items they would pay the vendors with the food stamp provided to them. The debit SNAP cards were a problem because for non-food items you had to put forth another card, hence bill twice.

As of March 2014, there were about 46.1 million people in households receiving SNAP. That’s roughly one in every seven people living in the United States. The single largest sub-group of recipients is households with children, although the program also serves working-age adults with no children, as well as the elderly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program and the states that administer it make sure only people eligible for the program get it.

The above is a food stamp or food coupon provided by USDA. It has a portrait of the image taken during Declaration of Independence and has a face value of 1 Dollar.