The Trump administration has just released a proposal to end our current food stamps system and replace it with a system similar to Blue Apron. Recipients would receive a Harvest Box which would contain shelf-stable foods that the government would select and distribute.
These Harvest Boxes would include “shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit and vegetables.” Food allergies and special dietary needs have not yet been discussed with this possible program.
Roughly 46 million Americans receive food stamps today by way of EBT cards where recipients have some choice as to their purchases. These cards were started back in the 1980s and 1990s after a series of tests were used to examine if food stamps or money helped with the nation’s overall malnutrition. The tests’ results showed those who received money were able to help more with the overall struggle of living in a low-income household.
There is also the issue of immigrants being cut off from these food stamps if Trump goes forward with restricting welfare benefits to immigrants in his proposed immigration law. Millions of first-generation immigrants are using these programs and 45.3 percent of these households contain children.
It makes no sense that politicians want to cut #SNAP when it feeds hungry children.
How about they focus on taxing #WallStreet and make the rich pay their fair share instead?#Foodstamps#FridayFeels pic.twitter.com/lWP42Y3JSk— Robin Hood Tax (@RobinHoodTax) February 16, 2018
“He would literally be taking food out of the mouths of babes, and some of them would be U.S. citizens,” said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies.
Several activists and critics are opposed to the idea and are worried about the issues that could arise by changing the current food stamp system.
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