Answer to Question #204476 in Microeconomics for C. Jones

Question

Discuss the policy and findings issues underlying food assistance programs in the U.S. Should the program be more of a nutrition program or serve as an income maintenance benefit? Why? Should the program limit food choices? If so, why, and to what extent? What responsibilities, if any, should participants of the program be expected to meet?

Answer 1

(i) Ensuring food security in all the states has been one of the greater concerns of the US government; a tremendous milestone was made when President Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act in 1964 into law, it later transformed to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program); the primary aim of the bill was fight hunger and improve nutrition through monetary transfers as well enhanced food availability especially to the low income earning families.

Recent studies show that participants of food assistant programs depict a slightly improved nutrition level compared to non-participants; Research shows that SNAP reduces poverty and food insecurity and that over the long term, these impacts lead to improved health and economic outcomes, especially for those who receive SNAP as children.

The findings also indicate that there has been reduced expenditures or cost incurred by the Federal Government on food programs owing to the guidelines provide that at least members of the households under the program engage in work or income-related activities to meet part of the cost of food supplementing the government's effort and also reduced period of some participants enrolled to 3 months, after which they can no longer receive government’s assistance. It was also found out that a higher number of eligible participants are not enrolled either due to ignorance or fear of the stigma associated with such programs being labeled as being "poor".

 

(ii) Since more than half of the participants of the food assistance program are children (18 years and below), the program ought to be more of a nutrition program than to serve as an income maintenance benefit; this is because children are not eligible for employment and that their cognitive developments require the provision of the nutritional supplement, so by having the program provide more of them (nutrition supplements) would be highly advocated for.

(iii) Funds transferred by the food assistance programs, especially SNAP, can be used to purchase several food items, labeled as "eligible for purchase" and they include fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, bread, cereals, and dairy products. Junk foods such as soft drinks, candy, and cookies can also be purchased. According to recent studies, there was high mortality rate in participants of foods stamps than in non-participants due to diabetes and cardiovascular-related diseases as a result of consumption of such junk food. Since unhealthy diets are against the policy of SNAP, removing junk food from the list of food items eligible for purchase would go a long way.

(iv) The participants of the food program are required to provide accurate periodic (after six months) reports of their income changes, confine their purchases to items labeled “eligible for purchase” using the SNAP cash transfers, observe the dietary recommendation and avoid behaviours (disobedience of law) that could render them ineligible.