Encyclopedia of Food & Culture | Food Stamps

FOOD STAMPS. The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is intended to help low-income individuals and families meet their basic nutritional needs. Although the first food stamps were issued to needy families in 1939, the FSP was not authorized as an official food-assistance program until 1964. In 1974, all states were required to offer food stamps, and in 1977 participation increased when eligible persons no longer had to buy food stamps with cash. Participation in the FSP continued to increase through the mid-1990s, until the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA, also known as "welfare reform") of 1996 reduced the number of people who were eligible.

In the early twenty-first century, the FSP remained the largest of the fifteen federal food-assistance programs, providing aid to an estimated 17.3 million individuals in 2001. An analysis of participants in 2000 showed that 51 percent were children (eighteen years or younger), 39 percent were nonelderly adults, and 10 percent were elderly adults. About 70 percent of participating adults were women. The majority (89 percent) of FSP households included a child, or elderly or disabled person. Of the households with children, 68 percent were headed by a single adult. Average gross monthly income per household was $620, with 89 percent of households having gross monthly incomes below 100 percent, and 58 percent having gross monthly incomes below 75 percent, of the federal poverty guideline. In 2000, 40 percent of participants were white, 36 percent were non-Hispanic African Americans, 18 percent were Hispanic, and 6 percent were of another race or ethnicity.

The total cost of the FSP in 2001 was approximately $17.8 billion, of which $15.5 billion was distributed in the form of food stamps. These numbers are noticeably lower than in 1994, when expenditures peaked at $24.5 billion and the number of participants also peaked, at 27.5 million (see Table 1). Trends in FSP participation and expenditures parallel trends in poverty and reduced unemployment. They also reflect changes in FSP policy and lack of information about such changes—the most likely reason why the participation rate among persons who remained eligible decreased from 74 percent in 1994 to 57 percent in 1999.

The FSP is administered at the federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but eligibility and distribution of benefits are administered by state and local agencies. In 2002, a household qualified for Food Stamps if its gross income was less than 130 percent of the federal poverty guideline (for example, $1,585 per month for a three-person household as of 1 October 2001), if net income after certain deductions (such as for child care) was less than 100 percent of the poverty guideline (for example, $1,220 per month for a three-person household as of the same date), and if countable assets (such as a bank account, but not a home or lot) were less than $2,000 (or less than $3,000 if the household had an elderly member). After the PRWORA took effect in 1997, legal permanent-resident aliens not employed in the United States for the past ten years could no longer receive FSP assistance, and most adults who were ablebodied, nonworking, and childless could receive only three months of aid in any thirty-six months. In addition, the maximum FSP benefit amounted to 100 percent of the

Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) allowance (reduced from the 103 percent issued in 1988). The TFP identifies types and quantities of foods for twelve age-gender groups that would meet the respective 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid serving recommendations, according to data from the 1989–1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII) and according to national average food prices. Eligibility for the FSP has changed constantly, however, as demonstrated by the decision in 1998 to restore Food Stamp benefits to children, elderly, and disabled individuals who were legal permanent residents in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains a toll-free telephone number to answer questions about current policies of the FSP.

In 2001, FSP participants received an average of $75 per person monthly in the form of paper coupons in denominations of $1, $5, and $10, or as electronic benefit transfers (EBTs). The computer-based EBT system employs a plastic card that functions like a bank debit card, allowing items to be purchased without the exchange of cash or coupons. The implementation of the EBT system was intended to make Food Stamp fraud (such as the exchange of cash for coupons at a lower value) more difficult. As of October 2001, thirty-seven states and Washington, D.C. issued all Food Stamp benefits in the form of EBTs. The PRWORA of 1996 mandates that all states use EBTs by October 2002.

Food Stamp coupons or EBTs can be used to buy foods such as breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, meats, fish and poultry, and dairy products, and to buy seeds and plants that produce food, from an estimated 155,000 authorized stores in the United States. But coupons or EBTs cannot be used to buy beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or other forms of tobacco; nonfood items like pet foods, household supplies, or toiletries; foods that can be eaten in the store; or hot foods. Food Stamps also cannot be used to buy dietary supplements, including vitamins and minerals, a controversial policy that has undergone much scrutiny.

Evaluation of the impact of the FSP on the diets of participants is mixed. Using data from the 1996–1997 National Food Stamp Program Survey (NFSPS), average nutrient intakes of FSP participants exceeded the RDA, but a substantial number of households had folic acid and iron intakes below the respective RDAs. Data from the 1994 to 1996 CSFII and the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) show that FSP participants had higher intakes of most nutrients than other adults, but that median intakes of vitamin E, calcium, and zinc still fell below the respective RDAs. Within population subgroups, Food Stamps have been associated with improved nutrient intakes in children but not among the elderly. Interestingly, Food Stamp participants are more likely to be food-insecure, meaning their household does not have enough food to eat at all times. However, this counterintuitive finding is credible because people who are food-insecure are more likely than others to apply for and receive Food Stamps. The dietary quality and food security of Food Stamp participants after the implementation of the PRWORA of 1996 and subsequent changes in FSP policy are of keen interest.

See also Class, Social; Government Agencies, U.S.;Poverty; School Meals; Soup Kitchens; WIC (Women, Infants, and Childrens) Program.

L. Beth Dixon