Examining Social Welfare Program Food Stamp Program
Despite being the most developed country in the world at least in terms of economic size and maturity of political institutions, the United States of America is still a home for many marginalized groups of people. With its diverse groups of citizens together with its liberal culture, the United States managed to provide a fertile ground to a society wherein marginalization is inevitable. However, unlike other developing countries, the United States possesses a government and mechanisms to address the marginalization of these people. Using its own resources for the welfare of these people, the United States had introduced and legislated numerous programs and policies to address these concerns. In fact, according to Bruce Jansson (2009) in his book The Reluctant Welfare State Engaging History to Advance Social Work Practice in Contemporary Society, a United States without a welfare state is unimaginable. In such society wherein there is no government to provide a safety net to its citizen in times of crisis or lack of opportunities, the life will be uncertain, brutish and difficult.
In this paper, we are going to examine a welfare program that possesses a very long history dating back even in the early years of the last century. Addressing the most basic necessity of any human being which is food, we are going to examine, review and analyze the Food Stamp Program that fed the citizens of United States who cannot provide or having difficulty to provide quality food for their households.
Legislative background and history
One of the earliest attempts to conduct a food subsidy program in the United States can be traced back in the later years of 1930s. In May 16, 1939, pioneered by the Department of Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace together with the first administrator of Food Stamp Program Milo Perkins, they managed to deploy a program that will permit the people to avail stamps that will give them an access to the surplus products or foods declared by the Department of Agriculture. This program had ended in 1943 when it was declared that the conditions that give way to the program such massive unemployment and unmarketable food surplus no longer existed. (Food and Nutrition Service 2009)
The program was revived in 1961 when the Pilot Food Stamp Program was launched under the Kennedy administration. It called for expanded food distributions that retain the requirement that food stamps will be purchased though they dropped the use of special stamps for surplus foods. In 1964, there was a movement under President Johnson to make the program permanent. The Food Stamp Act of 1964 was passed that made the program under the control of the Congress and made the said regulations into law.
In 1977, another major change was made in the program. The Food Stamp Act of 1977 had managed to emphasize the program to help the neediest and the poorest of the population. It also simplifies the programs administration and tightens its controls. Generally, it made the program more efficient, lessening its cumbersome process and errors that are often committed and targeted it to those who are really in need.
In the late 1980s, there was a boom in the participation in the program. This made way to two other acts that improved the existing acts to address the new issues that rose. The Hunger Prevention Act of 1988 and the Mickey Leland Memorial Domestic Hunger Relief Act in 1990 managed to increase the benefits of the program, the authorization of nutrition education grants, establishments of Electronic Benefit Transfer as an alternative to the existing system.
From 1988 to 2004, the use of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) was strongly encouraged by many managers of the program due to its efficiency and ease of use. The Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that made possible the authorization of the transfer of a citizens benefits from a Federal account to a retailer account to pay for the goods. It was widely used in the fifty states, including DC, Puerto Rick, Virgin Islands and Guam.
The mid 1990s being a period of many reforms in the welfare system, had managed to introduced different changes in the Food Stamp Program. With The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996, many benefits were eliminated. This includes the elimination of the eligibility in foods stamps for most legal immigrants, the use of time limit on food stamps for many citizens etc. With these new provisions of the program and the increase in employment in the United States, participation in the program had decline in the late 1990s.
The Farm Bill of 2002 reintroduced a wider scope for the welfare system in terms of food stamps. The Food Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 had restored the availability of foods stamps for qualified aliens or immigrants in the US for at least five years. It also restored the eligibility of immigrants receiving certain disability payments and for children, regardless of how long they have been in the country. The program reintroduced other provisions that widen the scope of the program. With these new provisions, the participation in the program had increased from 17.2 million in 2000 to 26 million in 2006.
The late 2000s had managed to introduce additional improvement in the program. With the economic slowdown and rise of unemployment, the participants had reached an all time high of 29 million people per month. With the Farm Bill of 2008, there was an increase in commitment in the food assistance program. It allocated more than 10 billion for the next ten years. It changes the name of the program from Food Stamp Act to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The new program feature greater flexibility, integrity, focus on nutrition education and the improvement in the access to the program. (Food and Nutrition Service 2009)
Examining Food Stamp Program
Recipients
The Food Stamp Program of the United States is very specific on who will benefit on the program. In, 2002, it was estimated that there are 19 million participants in the program. Almost 51 percent of the recipients are children aged 17 years old and below. More than 33 percent of these children are in the preschool age or age five years old and below. The other major recipients of this program aside from the children and teenagers are their caregivers, the elderly and the persons with disability. (Food Research and Action Center 2001)
In terms of the size of the households, the Food Stamp Program also caters smaller households. For households with children, the average size of the household the Food Stamp Program cater is 3.3 persons. Overall, the average size of household that the said program caters is 2.3 persons. It has been also recorded that more than 27 percent of the households that Food Stamp Program cater have at least one person with disability. More than 19 percent of the recipients are the households wherein at least one elderly person lives.
To be able to be eligible in the Food Stamp program, a household must be within the strict income and resource standard of the Food Stamp Program. Generally, this standard was arranged and specified to be able to serve the households that live in poverty. (Food Research and Action Center 2001)
Benefits
Recipients of the Food Stamp Program receives food stamps that is in accordance to the United States Department of Agricultures Thrifty Food Plan or the theoretical estimation of the cost of purchase of a viable meal plan that will suffice the dietary and nutritional requirement of a person. The Food Stamp Program assures that with the food stamps and the 30 percent of the income a household or an individual receive, they can be able to avail the Thrifty Food Plan.
The Food Stamps can be used to avail food, beverages and seed or plants that can produce foods. It is restricted to avail alcoholic drinks, tobacco, food for the pets, toilet materials and other non-food items. (Food Research and Action Center 2001)
Below is the chart that shows the exact benefits of the participants according to the characteristics of their households. (US Department of Agriculture 2009)
Effective Oct. 1 2009 Sept. 30, 2010
People in Household Maximum Monthly Benefit
1 200
2 367
3 526
4 668
5 793
6 952
7 1,052
8 1,202
Each Additional 150
Conditions
In October 2008, the Food Stamp Program was renamed to Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP). It mirrored some changes that have been made from the original Food Stamp Program. It featured new measures to meet the recipients needs and a better focus on nutrition with an increase amount granted to its recipients.
Under the Supplemental Nutrition Program, the total income, measured in terms of both gross and net should be under the stated limits to be able to avail the benefits of SNAP. Below is the specified amount of income that will suffice the eligibility in the program. (US Department of Agriculture 2009)
Effective Oct. 1 2009 Sept. 30, 2010
People in Household Gross Monthly Income Net Monthly Income
1 1,174 903
2 1,579 1,215
3 1,984 1,526
4 2,389 1, 838
5 2,794 2,150
6 3,200 2,461
7 3,605 2,773
8 4,010 3,085
Each additional 406 312
The Cost
When we trace, the Food Stamp Program from its early years, the government had paid a considerable amount for the benefits of the Food Stamp Program. From 1939-1943, with the program reaching more than 20 million participants, the total cost of the program reached up to 262 million. In the early 1990s, the allocation for food stamp benefits reached up to 2.8 billion. (Food and Nutrition Service 2009) In 2002, it was estimated the national government and the federal states had paid more than 18 billion dollars for the benefits of the said program. The Federal government pays most of the cost of the program with the state and local governments paying half of the administrative cost of the Food Stamp Program.
(Food Research and Action Center 2001)
Administrators and Guidance
The Food Stamp Program is administered by the state and local agencies under the standards set by the US Department of Agriculture and its arm the Food and Nutrition Service. Along with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Food and Nutrition Service also administer other programs including the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Child Nutrition Programs (National School Lunch, School Breakfast, Child and Adult Care, Summer Food Service and Special Milk) and Food Distribution Programs (Schools, Emergency Food Assistance, Indian Reservations, Commodity Supplemental, Nutrition for the Elderly, and Charitable Institutions). (Food and Nutrition Service 2010)
There are also other non-government and non-profit organizations that are helping to reach the goals and aims of the Food Stamp Program. This includes organizations like the Food and Research and Action Center (FRAC) which is the leading national non-profit organization that is helping to the development different policies and providing public-private partnership to be able to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in the US. The work of these kinds of organizations includes the conducting of research to be able to come up to data that will give an idea to the occurrence of hunger and malnutrition. They also lobby for public policies that will help the government achieve the same goal. Finally, they also provide public information campaign to gain the citizens awareness of the situation. (Food Research and Action Center 2001)
Results
According to the report of RESULTS, the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program had managed to increase the nutritional value of its participants by up to 20-40 percent. The participating households are more likely to spend more on food rather than other bills when compared no non-participating households. On the other hand, it was estimated that 4 out of 10 eligible households are not in the program despite the increase in the allocation of budget in the recent years. (Results 2010)
The Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program had always been cited as the most or at least the second most responsive and effective welfare program of the government. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for example had managed to allocate an additional 500 million for food reliefs and benefits for the disaster survivors without any need for congressional or legislative action. (Results 2010)
The same report also showed that almost all of the households under the program are eligible. It has the lowest error rate when compared to all previous welfare programs in the past with negligible overpayments for some households. The use of the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card had also managed to counter the rampant fraud and trafficking of benefits in the past.
Analysis and Conclusion
According to the US Office of Management and Budget (2010), the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program is a performing moderately effective program. According to them, the effectiveness of the program lies on its ability to target and provide benefits using almost every single resource allocated in the program. Its targeted citizens received the benefits and able to use it to purchase foods. Additionally, the program constantly increases its number of participants while lessening the errors in payment. In 2005, about 5.8 percents were paid in error in contrast to the 6.6 percent goal of the program. The performance exceeded the target goal by almost 1 percent. On the other hand, there are still some rooms for improvements in this program. The report for example recommended better targeting of the recipients using interventions. It also pushes for the development of a measuring system that will really provide the necessary information that will conclude if the program can really be able to reduce hunger and increase the nutrient intake of its participants (U.S. Office of Management and Budget 2010).
The success of programs such as Food Stamp Program or Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program can be normally attributed to the number of households that it can serve. However, further examination of the program will reveal us that the number of households is just one of the important elements that we need to examine. Other important factors include the percentage of eligible household participants and the proper use of the food stamps or food credit (EBT) in purchasing quality and nutritious foods. With this in mind, we can argue that the program is continuously developing. From the early days of the program wherein food stamps are sold in the 1930s to its evolution as a completely state-subsidized benefits 30 years ago and the rampant trafficking of food stamps up to the use of EBT which lessened dramatically these abuses, we can conclude that the program is undergoing important improvements compared before.
Food is the primary necessity of every human being and it is vital for any national government to provide a safety net for this kind of necessity. The Food Stamp Program or the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program had managed to develop its approach in addressing the growing problem on hunger and malnutrition in the United States. Though the program is still far from perfection, with these kinds of development and innovation the program had managed to shown us, we can expect a better and more effective program in the future that can possibly eliminate total hunger in the United States.
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