Research Proposal: The U.S.

Food Stamp System

By Veronica Johnson

July 2014

Introduction

Junk food may be bad for our bodies, but it remains a staple in the average American

diet. Unfortunately, for many low-income Americans relying on food stamps to feed themselves

and their families, processed junk food seems to be their only option. Because of this imposed

diet high in salt, fat, and sugar, more and more people who depend on food stamps are suffering

health consequences such as diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol. Furthermore, Republicans of

the House of Representatives passed a bill in January of this year that will reduce the national

food stamp program known as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) by over

$1 billion per year due to high levels of user abuse, high administrative costs (Gonzales, 1). Due

to the fact that food stamps are only giving people access to ultra-cheap food of the lowest

quality, the food stamp system in the US is flawed, leaving many Americans unhealthy and

uncertain of the meals they can afford. Regardless of annual income, every American should

have access to healthy, high quality food.

Background/Context

The first food stamp program was introduced to the US in the late 1930’s while the Great

Depression gripped the nation, with hunger being the most severe consequence (Anderson, para.

2). In order to combat the struggle of American hunger, the program went into effect in May of

1939 in Rochester, New York. Consequently, 1939 was also the year the first abuser of the

program was revealed (USDA, para. 2). As the years went on, more restrictions were placed on

the program. In 1961, president Kennedy headed the development of eliminating ‘surplus food

stamps’, which were food stamps that could purchase food items that were considered to be a
luxury (Anderson, para. 3). By the mid 1980’s, hunger among low/no income citizens was still

severe, so revisions were made to the food stamp program including the exclusion of advance

earned income tax credits as income, the instituting of periodic adjustments of the minimum

benefit, and the implementation of severe penalties for violations by individuals or participating

firms (USDA, para. 21).

Today, the cost of food is higher, thereby increasing the number of Americans who

participate in the food stamp program to approximately 47.6 million Americans, with an average

of $133.08 per month in food assistance (SNAP Monthly Data, UDSA.gov). Naturally, this

leaves lower income Americans no choice but to choose from either buying larger quantities of

cheap, unhealthy food or spending more on less when they have families to feed.

This problem is occurring all across the U.S., but some areas of the country are worse off

than others. According to Eli Saslow’s Washington Post article, the food stamp crisis is

especially prominent in Hidalgo County, Texas, which holds its rank as a town with “one of the

highest poverty rates in the nation…which has led almost 40 percent of residents to enroll in the

food-stamp program…which means a widespread alliance on cheap, processed foods…which

results in rates of diabetes and obesity that double the national average” (Saslow, 2). Even more

provoking is the effect the food stamp crisis has on the children who have no choice but to

participate: 40 percent of Hidalgo County’s children are “experiencing severe hunger at least

once each month and 32 percent of them [are] obese” (Saslow, 3).

Research Questions

The food stamp system was implemented in this country almost 80 years ago, so it would

be crucial to track the changes it’s gone through over time. It is also important to note the

relationship between these changes and the effects they had on the people who have relied on

food stamps throughout history. The first version of the food stamp program, known today as
The First Food Stamp Program (FSP), reached approximately 20 million people over the course

of four years, with a total cost of $262 million (USDA, para. 2). In 1943, the program ended

since “the conditions that brought the program into being—unmarketable food surpluses and

widespread unemployment—no longer existed" (USDA, para. 2). This tells me that at one time,

the U.S. food stamp system was at its optimum performance level and fulfilled its purpose

successfully.

The next implementation of food stamps, known as The Pilot Food Stamp Program, was

founded in 1961 and later amended by the Food Stamp Act of 1964, in which President Lyndon

B. Johnson requested Congress to pass legislation that would make the Food Stamp Program

permanent (USDA, para. 8). At this time, one of the provisions of the program was that food

stamp users could “purchase with food stamps of all items intended for human consumption

except alcoholic beverages and imported foods” (USDA, table 1). Based on the selection of food

stamp eligible foods now, something clearly went array along the way.

There are numerous factors that I believe may play a role in the current food stamp

system’s inefficiency. Take into consideration the massive expansion of the food stamp program

from 1965 to 1974, which exploded from half a million participants to 15 million in that period

of time. The increase in participants was largely credited to geographic expansion within the

country (USDA, para. 10). Because of this information, in addition to the costs of running the

food stamp program—which could reach up to $360 million per year during the 1960’s and shot

up to a reported $80 billion per year in 2013 (Plumer, para.2), I believe it is reasonable to wonder

if both the government and the nation’s food suppliers simply haven’t been able to keep up with

demand while the population gets larger every year.

The people most affected by a flawed food stamp system are the people who rely on food

stamps to feed themselves and their families—which, in this country, are mainly people of lower
income and no means of income. Most of these people living at the food-stamp eligibility income

level are people of color: “Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national

average. In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks and 26.6 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to

9.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 12.1 percent of Asians…Poverty rates are [also] highest

for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic” (National

Poverty Center, para. 10, 11). Moreover, children have long been known to make up a majority

of the poor in the United States. According to the National Poverty Center Website, the poverty

rate for children “varies substantially by race and Hispanic origin” (NPC, para. 13).

Despite the extensive scale of the food stamp issue, there are people out there who are

actively proposing possible solutions to their audiences. In Mark Bittman’s article titled “How to

Feed the World”, he proposes “more investment in researching the benefits of traditional

farming” (Bittman, 2). Furthermore, Bittman notes that “even though simple techniques like

those mentioned above give measurably excellent results, because they’re traditional—even

ancient—‘technologies,’ and because their benefits in profiting multinationals or international

trade are limited, they’ve never received investment on the same scale as corporate agriculture”

(Bittman, 2).

Another advocate of food stamp reform is policy analyst Rachel Sheffield, who lists in

her article several suggestions for Congress, some of which include the staggering of

authorizations for food stamps and agriculture programs, the progression of food stamps into a

work activation program, and the reallocation of food stamps from the U.S. Department of

Agriculture (USDA) to Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as a number of other

proposed solutions. (Sheffield, para. 6-10) Sheffield also proposes that the country’s policy

makers close the “heat-and-eat” loophole, a term used to describe the tactic of artificially

boosting a household’s food stamp benefit via the Low-Income Heat and Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP), which allows households to receive utility deductions from its countable

income used to determine eligibility for food stamps. Certain states have utilized LIHEAP to

write checks as low as $1 in order for low-income households to qualify for a greater number of

food stamps (Sheffield, para. 8).

Review of Literature

The information I’ve obtained to research the inefficiency of the U.S. food stamp system

has enabled me to determine that the food stamp issue is immensely complex and currently more

multidimensional than ever, and will require further research to cover the topic as efficiently as

possible. This further research will include a deeper look into who is affected by the food stamp

system’s shortcomings, what role the food stamp recipients play in the severity of this issue, and

what individual states are doing to help—and hurt—the evolution of America’s food stamp

system.
 Working Bibliography

Anderson, Kelly. “Food Stamps in the U.S.” Mint.com. Inuit, Inc., 2014. Web.

Andrews, M., et al. "An Alternative to Developing Stores in Food Deserts: Can Changes in

SNAP Benefits Make a Difference?" Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 35,

Elsevier B.V. 26 Jun. 2014. Web.

Bean, Roy, Davis, Sean, and Davey, Maureen. Exercises and Activities for Clinical

Supervision: Cultivating Self-Awareness and Competence. Eds. Sean D. Davis, Maureen

P. Davey and Roy A. Bean. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014. Book.

Bittman, Mark. “How to Feed the World.” The New York Times, 14 October 2013. Web.

Plumer, Brad. “Food Stamps Will Get Cut by $5 Billion This Week – and More Cuts Could

Follow.” The Washington Post, 28 October 2013. Web.

Gonzales, Richard. “Small Cuts to Food Stamps Add Up to Big Pains for Many Recipients.”

NPR: The Salt, 30 January 2014. Web.

National Poverty Center at The University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public

Policy. “Poverty Facts.” Copyright 2014 Regents of the University of Michigan. Web.

Saslow, Eli. "Too Much of Too Little: How the Food Stamp Diet is Leaving the Rio Grande

Valley both Hungry and Obese." The Washington Post, 9/11/2013. Web.

Sheffield, Rachel. “How to Reform Food Stamps.” The Heritage Foundation, 12 September

2013. Web.

United States Department of Agriculture: Food and Nutrition Services. “A Short History of

SNAP.” Last modified 10 June 2014. Web.