Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Analysis

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The United States’ Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) nutrition assistance programs are set in place in order to “help reduce food insecurity, improve nutrition and reduce obesity” in order to ensure that children and families, alike, are able to have access to healthy diets in both, schools and child and adult care facilities, and also ensuring that families hold the funds to purchase food (United States Department of Agriculture 8). Within a year, one in four Americans will utilize at least one of the USDA’s 15 nutrition assistance programs, that aim to end hunger and reduce obesity (United States Department of Agriculture 48). Therefore, these programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Children Nutrition Programs, …show more content…
SNAP is a program that is formerly and more widely known as food stamps. Furthermore, it is a federal nutrition assistance program that assists individuals stretch their budget for food, as well as allowing recipients to buy healthy food ("What Is SNAP?" 1). The way the system works is the benefits of SNAP are provided to the user via a plastic card called an EBT or electronic benefits transfer card. This card works as if it was a debit card. Additionally, SNAP is available to anyone who may qualify, it is not a welfare cash assistance program. Therefore, any person who is eligible can receive the benefits from the program. SNAP is an exceptional program to assist others in times of food insecurity, within just the past year it has served approximately 44.5 million Americans (“What Is SNAP?” …show more content…
By providing SNAP with $14 million, the USDA aims to assist and support the elderly citizens of America who are in need by about 20,000 slots (United States Department of Agriculture 9). In addition to aspiring to help the elderly receive the benefits of SNAP, the USDA is also investing in improving the integrity not only SNAP but also Children Nutrition Programs. By doing this, they aim to lower the amount of fraud and waste, and to guarantee that these services are being directed toward the people who actually need them. This budget enables funding to allow the development of a framework that could reduce abuse of the programs from occurring, and would increase inefficiently in these programs as well (United States Department of Agriculture

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