The History of SNAP

FDR signing the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933.

The foundation for SNAP was first built in 1933 as part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). The program, referred to as the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, was established in the midst of the Great Depression, when prices for crops fell dramatically and farms across America were struggling to deal with the excess supply. To support farmers, the Federal government bought basic farm commodities at discount prices and distributed them among hunger relief agencies in states and local communities.

The first food stamp issued in 1939.

To formalize this food distribution and to avoid duplicating efforts by local relief agencies, Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, created the Food Stamp Program in the United States. The initiative, called the “Food Stamps Plan,” was implemented in 1939 under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a key component of the New Deal program. Food assistance was made available to low-income individuals through the purchase of food stamps and the provision of additional bonus stamps that could be used to purchase specific foods identified as being in surplus.  Participants in the program purchased booklets of orange stamps to buy food and household items including starch, soap and matches but the stamps could not be used to buy alcohol, tobacco or foods eaten at stores. For every $1 in orange stamps that were purchased, an additional $0.50 of blue stamps were given to participants. Blue stamps could be used to buy commodity surplus foods that were listed in the grocery store including dry beans, flour, corn meal, eggs and fresh vegetables. Participants were required to buy the stamps so that money allocated for food purchases would not be spent on non-food items. The program ended in 1943, as World War II and the subsequent economic boom significantly decreased the number of people living in poverty in the United States.

Isabelle Kelley, the principal author of the Food Stamp Act of 1964.

In 1964, The Food Stamp Act (P.L. 88-525) was passed as a part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Program.  Ms. Isabelle M. Kelley, the principal author of the Food Stamp Act of 1964, also served as the first Director of the Food Stamp Program. The goal of this initiative was to achieve a more effective use of agricultural overproduction, improve levels of nutrition among individuals with low-incomes and strengthen the agricultural economy. The Food Stamp Program required the purchase of “stamps” or coupons at benefit levels similar to what a household would normally allot to food expenditures. A “bonus” amount (benefit), which was determined based on a participant’s income level, was awarded to enable the purchase of a low-cost nutritionally adequate diet as defined by the Economy Food Plan. A U.S. House of Representatives provision to limit the purchase of soft drinks and “luxury” foods was eliminated from the final version of the bill. The federal government funded the program and licensed retailers, while the states authorized applications for food stamps and distributed the benefits. The legislation prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or political ideology of participants.

1977

The Food Stamp Act of 1977 included a provision to allow the purchase of seeds to grow foods.

Major revisions were made to the program in the Food Stamp Act of 1977, including the elimination of the requirement that participants purchase the stamps; the establishment of uniform national standards of eligibility; the expansion of the program to minority communities; more federal support for the implementation of the program at the state level; and restricted access to benefits for students enrolled in a university.

EBT cards were introduced in the late 1990s, a significant change in the way benefits were distributed in the food stamps program.

Significant changes were made to the Food Stamp Program in the early 2000s. Food stamp participation increased dramatically, and eligibility was extended to qualified immigrants and children who were 18 years old and younger. Also during this time period, the stamps used for food purchases were replaced with an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. The EBT cards, modeled after credit or debit cards, transfer government benefits from a federal account to the SNAP retailer. The cards were instituted to reduce program fraud, ensure ease of use of food benefits by program participants, and to reduce the stigma associated with using food stamps for purchases.

Since 2008, legislators have focused on restructuring the food stamps program to place greater emphasis on nutrition. In the 2008 Farm Bill, the program was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and a pilot program was established to study the use of incentives to encourage the purchase of healthy foods with SNAP benefits. Several states have been working to make it easier to use SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets and other retail establishments that sell fresh, healthy foods.