Some 46 million people, roughly one out of seven Americans, use food stamps each month to help put food on the table, says the White House. A report by the Council of Economic Advisors says, “New research … shows benefit levels are often inadequate to sustain families through the end of the month — resulting in high-cost consequences, such as a 27-percent increase in the rate of hospital admissions due to low blood sugar for low-income adults between the first and last week of the month, as well as diminished performance on standardized tests among school age children.”
The fact sheet said children who receive food stamps “see improvements in health and academic performance and that these benefits are mirrored by long-run improvements in health, educational attainment, and economic self-sufficiency.” The benefits were enough to lift at least 4.7 million people out of poverty in 2014.
Food stamp benefits are based on “out-dated assumptions that may under-estimate need among families,” says the report. The food basket used to calculate benefits assumes poor people eat far more beans, whole-wheat pasta and potatoes than the average American and that low-income families will spend much more time in preparing and cooking foods than most households. “The inflation adjustment can lag by as much as 16 months” behind price increases in food, it says.