Food Stamps: With the socio-economic impact of COVID-19, many families have had to re-evaluate their budgets. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, was created to help low-income families afford more nutritious foods.
Although this program has been successful in providing financial assistance for low-income families, some might argue that it does not do enough to alleviate hunger and food insecurity.
Here are some ways that SNAP benefits can be improved for low-income families.
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Food Stamps benefit and their impact on low-income families
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a federal program that provides low-income families with financial assistance for food. In this program, the government gives recipients a debit card (food stamp card) that they can use to purchase groceries from participating stores.
The benefit of this program is that it helps to provide more nutritious food for families. Most are families who might not have the financial means to do so otherwise.
However, some argue that SNAP does not do enough to help alleviate hunger and food insecurity in low-income families. One way to improve the program is by providing more nutritious foods like fresh produce and whole foods.
Another improvement would be by providing more funds per household or by increasing the amount of money allotted on each debit card.
This would allow recipients to spend more on food without worrying about making their money last for weeks at a time.
Lastly, an important improvement would be to make sure all stores participate in the SNAP program.
Currently, many stores do not accept SNAP and many people are unaware that they will need to go somewhere else for their groceries when using them.
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Why doesn’t the SNAP program provide enough food to those who need it?
The SNAP program, gives families a minimum of $36 per month to spend on food. This amount is not enough for a family to feed their children well.
The USDA recommends that a single adult needs about $2100 a year to eat nutritious meals and have enough left over to spend on other necessities. Families with more than one person need even more money to afford appropriate food for everyone.
But, if a family has two adults and two children under 18 years old living in poverty, they will only receive about $93 per month from the SNAP program.
How to Improve Food Stamps Program
There are many benefits that SNAP provide for low-income families, such as the ability to reduce food insecurity and hunger.
However, some argue that these benefits could be improved by increasing the number of funds given. Furthermore, easy access to healthy foods, and providing incentives for people who participate in work-training programs.
- Increasing the number of funds given: This could help lower-income families purchase more nutritious food. It will also reduce risk of food insecurity.
- Providing increased access to healthy foods: increase in healthy foods can help improve SNAP program. Currently, many of these grocery stores have a greater selection of processed or unhealthy foods.
- Providing incentives for people who participate in work-training programs: there should be incentives for people who participate in work-training programs.
Incentives like this will allow those with less income and opportunity for success while assisting our nation’s economy.
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Conclusion
SNAP, or food stamps, is a government program that provide low-income individuals and families with the nutrients they need to live a healthy life.
While this program does a lot of good, it doesn’t do nearly enough for those in need. To make this program more effective, there are a few different things policymakers can do.
They can, for example, increase Welfare benefits, make it easier for participants to apply for the program. Also, to make the program more responsive to the needs of various groups.
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