The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) acts as America’s safety net and is the main foundation for nutrition assistance programs. The program offers over 50 million participants in approximately 23 million low-income households with cards they can use to purchase food each month. Because eligibility is not limited to restricted, SNAP serves different kinds of people who live in low-income households, this includes families with children, disabled people, elderly folks, and those who are temporarily unemployed. “About 72% of SNAP recipients live in households with children; more than one-quarter live in households with seniors or people with disabilities.” Although the SNAP program offers many types of benefits such as food security,
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SNAP has effectively met the dire needs of low-income Americans. For one, SNAP has responded well to the recession by having a safety net role. The recession began in the late 2007 and or early 2008, the economic and financial circumstances that millions of Americans faced, led to the high increase in the number of low-income households who qualified and applied to the program for further assistance. The economy picked up and recovered from the recession later in 2012. SNAP was valued to those who could not afford to support themselves and policymakers viewed the program as significant since it did not discriminate its members and it has reached a large population of low-income families. To further elaborate, SNAP is able to reach a majority of those who are eligible. “SNAP reached 75% of all eligible individuals in a typical month in 2010… The participation rate among eligible low-income working families rose from 43% in 2002 to about 65% in 2010.” Lastly, the accuracy of SNAP payment is at an all-time high. SNAP like any public benefit program has a quality control system, but in this case, being the most rigorous and challenging of all due to the recent growth in caseloads. SNAP spending goes back to the concern of it contributing to the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. SNAP spending and its total payments are quite low, especially in …show more content…
Individuals who participate in food assistance programs such as SNAP often have low and or limited health literacy. Some examples of the difficulties that these individuals may often face consists of: following dietary or food guidelines, reading food labels, and making informed decisions when faced with choices in the grocery store. We can attempt to understand the health literacy abilities of low-income SNAP eligible adults, and examine how their participation in the program correlates with nutrition behaviors, so we can examine health literacy in action. “Given previous research suggesting that individuals with low health literacy are less likely to consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables and use nutrition labels, we expected to find that participants with lower levels of health literacy would employ fewer healthy eating practices than participants with higher levels of health
SNAP has effectively met the dire needs of low-income Americans. For one, SNAP has responded well to the recession by having a safety net role. The recession began in the late 2007 and or early 2008, the economic and financial circumstances that millions of Americans faced, led to the high increase in the number of low-income households who qualified and applied to the program for further assistance. The economy picked up and recovered from the recession later in 2012. SNAP was valued to those who could not afford to support themselves and policymakers viewed the program as significant since it did not discriminate its members and it has reached a large population of low-income families. To further elaborate, SNAP is able to reach a majority of those who are eligible. “SNAP reached 75% of all eligible individuals in a typical month in 2010… The participation rate among eligible low-income working families rose from 43% in 2002 to about 65% in 2010.” Lastly, the accuracy of SNAP payment is at an all-time high. SNAP like any public benefit program has a quality control system, but in this case, being the most rigorous and challenging of all due to the recent growth in caseloads. SNAP spending goes back to the concern of it contributing to the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. SNAP spending and its total payments are quite low, especially in …show more content…
Individuals who participate in food assistance programs such as SNAP often have low and or limited health literacy. Some examples of the difficulties that these individuals may often face consists of: following dietary or food guidelines, reading food labels, and making informed decisions when faced with choices in the grocery store. We can attempt to understand the health literacy abilities of low-income SNAP eligible adults, and examine how their participation in the program correlates with nutrition behaviors, so we can examine health literacy in action. “Given previous research suggesting that individuals with low health literacy are less likely to consume the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables and use nutrition labels, we expected to find that participants with lower levels of health literacy would employ fewer healthy eating practices than participants with higher levels of health