Congress should expand SNAP, the premiere U.S. anti-hunger program, to all American territories in the new farm bill and test whether benefits tied to the purchase of fruits and vegetables would improve the diets of SNAP households, a high-powered task force proposed on Tuesday. The recommendations could add billions of dollars a year to SNAP outlays at a time when conservative Republicans want to cut its cost.
The “four corners” — the leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture committees — have met informally to discuss the farm bill and expect to meet again, said an aide to Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Senate committee. “Essentially there is momentum, and progress under way, to get this done.”
In a 111-page report,”Making food and nutrition security a SNAP,” a task force assembled by the Bipartisan Policy Center acknowledged its recommendations would increase federal spending. But the CBO projects a significant decline in SNAP spending in coming years as the economy recovers and temporary pandemic increases in benefits expire, it said, so the recommendations “should be considered in the overall context of enhanced economic security.”
At latest count, 42.3 million people received food stamps. Average benefit per person was $253 per month with a total cost of $10.7 billion a month.
“The program presents immense opportunities to increase access to and intake of healthy foods,” said the task force co-chaired by former agriculture secretaries Ann Veneman and Dan Glickman, chef Jose Andres and Leslie Sarasin, chief executive of FMI – The Food Industry Association. “Although research indicates that Americans from all income levels have poor diets, SNAP participants have lower total Healthy Eating Index scores than nonparticipants with both the same and higher income levels.”
To encourage more consumption of fruits and vegetables, the farm bill should authorize a pilot program “providing a new monthly cash value benefit (CVB)” for all forms of fruits and vegetables, similar to the so-called WIC bump that makes an additional $9-$11 available per month to WIC participants to buy fresh produce. The WIC bump is one-third or one-fourth of the expenditure needed to buy enough produce to comply with the Dietary Guidelines.
“Such a program could first be established as a pilot project and later expanded, depending on funding availability and evidence of positive impact,” said the task force. It also recommended expansion, to at least $1 billion, of the so-called GusNIP nutrition incentive and produce prescription program.
SNAP would be expanded to all U.S. territories, replacing the block grants now used, under another of the task force recommendations. Expenditures in Puerto Rico would double, to $4.5 billion. SNAP is available in some territories, including Guam and U.S. Virgin Islands, but not in Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Meanwhile, companion House and Senate versions of the Justice for Black Farmers Act were unveiled on Capitol Hill. The legislation, introduced in the last session of Congress, is intended to end discrimination at USDA and, through grants of up to 160 acres to Black farmers, expand Black ownership of farmland. “There is a direct connection between discriminatory USDA policies and the enormous land loss we have seen among Black farmers over the past century,” said sponsor Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
“This bill is likely to become a key marker bill” as the farm bill is assembled, said the Union of Concerned Scientists.