The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

The Historical Context of the Current Policy and the Role of Historical Context in the Policy Development

The Supplemental Food Program was formerly called the Food Stamp Program. The program was developed to improve nutrition and family well-being when the United States was experiencing economic issues. The Food Stamp Program was embraced in societies across the United States because it aligned with the increasing food surpluses by considering the needs of the poor after the Great Depression (Wiseman, 2019). The main factor that contributed to the rise of the policy was the food distribution program, where food commodities were bought for the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, which focused on encouraging the domestic consumption of surplus food to relieve people from unemployment. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson requested creation and implementation

a permanent Food Stamp Program to fight poverty. The original Food Stamp Program, developed in 1939, was improved by introducing food coupons that allowed participants to afford a healthy diet based on the size of their households. State welfare agencies would determine the eligibility for the program, and participants would purchase any food apart from imported foods, tobacco, and alcohol. The program was then expanded in 1974 to allow citizens nationwide to participate.

In 1977, the Food Stamp Act was passed, creating room for additional requirements. The main requirement included ensuring that every family would get coupons with a value set as the cost of a healthy diet by the United States Department of Agriculture. However, the purchase requirement was eliminated after people raised concerns about it (Caswell & Yaktine, 2013). In the 1980s, lawmakers expressed concerns about the cost and size of the Food Stamp Program, decreasing frequency of the adjustments in the cost of living for allotments, and limited participation by requiring participants to pass a gross income test. In 1996, the Food Stamp Program was adjusted based on the Welfare Reform Act. The main changes included giving states more administrative control over the program and removing the eligibility for legal residents who were not United States citizens. The Electronic Benefits Transfer system was created to reduce fraud in the program. In 2009, the Thrifty Food Plan was increased by 13.6% for most households to help improve the economy and help the program participants deal with economic challenges (Caswell & Yaktine, 2013). Since then, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has been embraced as one of the most successful programs in improving the food security and economic welfare of low-income United States citizens.

Practice Implications and Its Influence on Service Delivery

The basic design of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), with the exception of the elimination of the purchase requirement and national eligibility standards, has been the same since 1964. The program has undergone various changes with various practice implications, including increased program complexities for applicants and administrators. According to Romano (2020), the legislation that is currently governing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has specific administrative procedures, and eligibility requirements have made the program more complex than other social programs because most of the program’s features limit its ability to respond to individual household needs such as the deductions in their income. Therefore, the program is not able to offer the best services to its participants and achieve its goal of helping the poor deal with economic challenges. It is also challenging to create a balance between a more accessible and targeted benefit in the program. Another practice implication is the challenge in expenditure management. The cost and size of the program make it a target for budget adjustments and cuts, leading to poor service delivery to participants.

Biblical Integration

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s goal of helping poor people achieve food security and cope with economic challenges aligns with various biblical teachings. For example, in Deuteronomy 26, the Israelites are instructed to share some of their produce with the widows, sojourners, and fatherless in the town. The act of sharing with the less fortunate lays the foundation for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it emphasizes ensuring that the poor have enough food for their families by sharing the food surpluses in society. The program also spreads hope to the poor because they are assured that they can have a decent meal despite their low income. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s purpose also aligns with biblical teachings on caring for the hungry and the poor. In Deuteronomy 15:11, God commands his followers to share with the needy and poor neighbours. Therefore, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program follows this command by ensuring that the hungry and the poor have access to a healthy diet and are assured of getting their next meal despite their low economic status.

Strengths and Limitations of the Policy

One of the main strengths of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is reducing hunger in society. The program aims to increase food security and prevent malnutrition among low-income households, thus reducing hunger. According to Carlson et al. (2021), the program reduces the overall food insecurity prevalence by approximately 30% and is more effective among vulnerable groups in the community, such as children from low-income households. The second strength is that it reduces healthcare costs. The program enables low-income households to afford healthy food, thus reducing the risk of diet-related illnesses. Another strength is that it promotes economic growth by ensuring that low-income households have resources for basic needs such as medical care, utilities, and rent, thus enabling them to contribute to the revenue generated in the country. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2022), the USDA established that every dollar spent on new SNAP benefits contributes $1.50 to the GDP in a weak economy. Many lawmakers and administrators support the program because it protects families from hunger and hardship. For example, the program helps low-income families cope with family crises or temporary unemployment periods by enabling them to feed their children until they can afford to purchase food using their income.

Although SNAP has been successful over the past decade, various limitations could impact the program’s success and sustainability. One of the limitations is that it is challenging to develop innovative strategies that support good health among low-income households and combat hunger, chronic diseases, and obesity (Blumenthal et al., 2013). The second limitation is that the benefit allotment used in the program does not consider the cost of healthy diets and does not consider the actual cost of living. Therefore, most participants use food stamps to purchase what they can afford, even though it may not be classified as a healthy diet (Blumenthal et al., 2013). Households may also rely on low-quality food to cope with the abrupt changes in their income, and some may skip meals, increase cereal consumption, and trade between buying food and medicine. The fourth limitation is that eligibility considerations do not adapt to the short-term variations in individual income that may occur abruptly. Some people have also raised concerns that the program deliberately keeps people alive but poor and poorly nourished (Gaines-Turner et al., 2019). Poor nourishment arises because of limited food choices, which could also be considered a stigma and unfair treatment of low-income households. The idea that the program deliberately keeps people poor arises from its emphasis on guaranteeing food access even for individuals without a stable income.

Recommendations for Improvements or Changes to the Policy

The future of a policy is influenced by the ability to make changes that eliminate its limitations. One of the recommendations that should be considered to improve the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is creating a different method to calculate benefits. The main issue with the current program is that it does not consider the actual cost of food and the cost of living. Therefore, it is crucial to align the method used to calculate benefits with the changes in the cost of living and cost of food to give participants access to a wide range of food choices and proper nourishment. The second recommendation is to increase the recertification period and eliminate the interim proof of income requirement. The program’s participants should be allowed to work long hours to increase their income without fearing losing benefits. I would also recommend considering the short-term fluctuations in people’s income when creating the eligibility criteria to enable participants to decide whether to increase their income or take a new job without the risk of losing benefits. I would also recommend partnering with retailers offering healthy food to eliminate the poor nourishment issue and increase the variety of food participants can get. The partnership may include grocery stores providing healthy foods to encourage participants to purchase healthy food. I would also recommend improving the professionalism of caseworkers to prevent the stigmatization of SNAP participants. The caseworkers should be encouraged to treat the participants as taxpayers rather than viewing them as poor people depending on the government for food.

References

Blumenthal, S. J., Hoffnagle, E. E., Leung, C. W., Lofink, H., Jensen, H. H., Foerster, S. B., Cheung, L. W., Nestle, M., & Willett, W. C. (2013). Strategies to improve the dietary quality of supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) beneficiaries: An assessment of stakeholder opinions. Public Health Nutrition, 17(12), 2824-2833. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980013002942

Carlson, S., Llobrera, J., & Keith-Jennings, B. (2021). More Adequate SNAP Benefits Would Help Millions of Participants Better Afford Food. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/more-adequate-snap-benefits-would-help-millions-of-participants-better

Caswell, J., & Yaktine, A. (2013). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Examining the Evidence to Define Benefit Adequacy. Washington (D.C.): National Academies Press (U.S.).

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2022). Policy Basics: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/the-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap

Gaines-Turner, T., Simmons, J. C., & Chilton, M. (2019). Recommendations from SNAP participants to improve wages and end stigma. American Journal of Public Health, 109(12), 1664-1667. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2019.305362

Romano, V. (2020). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recommendations to address healthy food access in the United States. Global Journal of Nutrition & Food Science, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.33552/gjnfs.2020.03.000558

Wiseman, M. (2019). The supplemental nutrition assistance program. Strengths of the Social Safety Net in the Great Recession: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and Unemployment Insurance, 93-156. https://doi.org/10.17848/9780880996648.ch3.

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

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