SNAP changes

January 23, 2011

Have an RD friend who has worked in trying to change food policy in

Washington for years - she said if you have any questions feel free to ask.

This is info she gave me already.

" I don’t think we will ever see changes in what SNAP participants can

purchase. I remember meeting many times to discuss “junk” foods and

realizing that there was no way we could define them. When does a granola

bar morph into a candy bar? Yogurt would be OK but ice cream “bad” but

nutritionally they are essentially the same of course depending on fat

content. I could go on and on. The politicals who keep the program going

say “why should poor people not be allowed to purchase the same foods that

rich people do?”. Why not just give people cash rather than food benefits

and avoid the paternalistic approach which says that they would not feed

their kids and would instead spend the cash on booze and cigarettes? Back

in the 90s we studied just that in several states. [i was the project

officer]. The best designed study of several [san Diego] found no

difference in the food availability of the families on cash vs. food

stamps. A campaign is futile but we need to keep hammering away at

nutrition ed.

BUT….FNS is conducting a study in one county in Mass. to see if we can

incentivize SNAP participants to purchase more fruits and vegetables [the

same list that WIC uses now] by giving them additional benefits if they do

so. It’s a $10 million study and involves getting retailers to change their

check-out procedures to be able to determine which purchases are made that

are eligible for the added cash benefit.

--

Ortiz, MS, RD

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