SNAP is by far the most effective tool available to help the country’s 40 million food-insecure individuals, so it’s natural that hunger-relief advocates always want to see SNAP participation and spending go up. For the past five years, however, the trend has been the opposite. The latest figures, released last…
Posts published in “SNAP+”
With attention focused on whether some able-bodied adults may be restricted from receiving SNAP (today is the last day to submit comments on this Trump Administration proposal*), it’s a good time to consider the many positive provisions tucked away the recently passed farm bill. While the protection of SNAP was…
Should SNAP participants be allowed to use their benefits to purchase sugary beverages? This enduring question got put to the test again this week when two prominent health organizations recommended that recipients of federal nutrition assistance be dissuaded from buying sugary drinks. The advice was part of a policy statement…
At just over one million meals served, the federal after-school meals program, largely funded through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), does not have near the reach of school lunch or breakfast, but diligence and creativity on the part of some food banks is helping to raise its…
Propel, a Brooklyn, NY, startup that offers an app to manage SNAP, scrambled as soon as it heard that the government would be handing out February SNAP benefits early due to the shutdown. Early issuance of SNAP would create a long gap between payments, it realized, and it hoped to…
The USDA saved the day when it announced on January 8, that SNAP benefits would be available through February, despite the government shutdown. But the technique it is using to make benefits available in February will not be possible in March, raising the specter of severe hardship for millions of…