In April 2015, actress Gwyneth Paltrow attempted
the Food Stamp Challenge.
It limits spending on groceries to $29 dollars
per week, which is approximately the same
amount allocated to Food Stamp users.
She failed to make it past the fourth day,
but succeeded in raising awareness about public
welfare programs and hunger in America.
With an estimated 46 million currently using
federal food aid programs, we wanted to know:
How do Food Stamps work?
And are they effective?
The Food Stamp program is a federal aid program
designed to temporarily help people pay for
groceries.
As of 2008, the program is officially known
as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
or SNAP.
With SNAP, you may only buy food products,
NOT including alcohol, tobacco, vitamins or
medicines.
To qualify for SNAP, you need to be at or
below the national “poverty threshold”.
This year, a single person with no children
would need to make less than $973 a month
to qualify.
For a four person household, that number increases
to $1,988 dollars or less.
Additionally, you can’t have a ton of money
stored in your bank accounts.
For some states, all your countable resources
can’t be worth more than $2,250 dollars
- and usually this does NOT include the worth
of your home.
If you meet all the criteria, SNAP will allot
you $194 dollars per month, if it’s just
you, - or, $649 dollars per month for a family
of four.
Additional benefits are sometimes provided
on the state level.
So, how effective are food stamps?
Well, many experts have reported positive
effects from SNAP, especially after the 2008
recession.
In 2013, the Congressional Budget Office rated
an increase in SNAP benefits as one of the
most cost-effective methods that could be
used by the government to boost the economy
during hard times.
Moody’s Investors Service claims that in
2008, every dollar spent on SNAP resulted
in about one-dollar and seventy-cents worth
of economic activity.
SNAP reportedly reaches 75% of eligible recipients,
and according to the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, it has “one of the most
rigorous quality control systems of any public
benefit program”.
SNAP kept 4.8 million people out of poverty
in 2013, including 2.1 million children.
Critics of SNAP usually have a problem with
the price tag, and recently there have been
cuts to the program.
In 2014, SNAP cost taxpayers about $74 billion
dollars.
But in spite of the cost, SNAP enjoys a large
amount of public support.
A majority of Americans think that they have
an obligation to “support and improve”
government sponsored food assistance programs,
AND, most think that letting other citizens
go hungry is unacceptable.
If you’re curious what it’s actually like
to live on food stamps, outside of all the
celebrity media buzz sort of stuff… make
sure you get the rest of the story from Seeker.
There’s a link to 
that video in the description, and don’t
forget to subscribe!
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