Why America’s poor cannot SNAP out of food stamps
As we eat and drink ourselves silly over the Christmas period, let’s the remember the poorer members of our community. Even in the United States – the richest country on earth – there is massive need for food subsidies.
In the USA, the food stamps scheme is known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP). An expansion of the programme to cope with the recession was allowed to expire last month. So 3.8 million have lost access to food stamps completely. The remaining 48 million – including 22 million children – have seen cuts averaging 7%.
In today’s “Guardian”, an article highlights the plight of a family in San Antonio which has a particular resonance for me because currently my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter are in that city with relatives to celebrate Christmas.
You can see the trends and a defence of SNAP in this column from the “New York Times”.