A comparison of food stamp benefits and federal dietary guidelines finds that the premiere U.S. antihunger program “only covers 43-60 percent of what it costs to consume … a healthy diet,” says North Carolina State University. “The study highlights the challenges lower-income households face in trying to eat a healthy diet.”
For the study, researchers from NCSU and the Union of Concerned Scientists looked at retail food prices in 2015, the government’s dietary advice and food stamp benefit levels at the time. They considered approaches that ranged from eating a well-rounded diet that featured fresh produce — the most expensive diet — to a strictly vegetarian diet, the least expensive. A household of four people, including two adults and two children, would have to spend $487 a month of its own money, beyond food stamps, for the vegetarian diet, they said.
“Even though SNAP is not designed to cover all of the cost of food — it’s meant to be a supplemental food program — this study makes it clear that there would be many low-income households that would not be able to cover the gap needed to eat a diet consistent with federal dietary guidelines,” said Lindsey Haynes-Maslow, co-author of the paper and an NCSU assistant professor of agricultural and human sciences.
Food stamps are expected to be a major issue in the drafting of the 2018 farm bill. House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway has said he will seek major reforms, including stricter eligibility rules. President Trump proposed a 25-percent cut in food stamp spending in his budget plan for fiscal 2018.