The other night I cooked dinner: meat, biscuits, carrots, fresh fruit and milk. Add-in a quarter for butter for the biscuits and spices and our hard cost was $3.26 per person. (It would have been higher but for a late arriving box of Holiday fresh fruit from friends.)
That menu represents getting a meal and a half out of a pork tenderloin, three meals out of a tube of biscuits, several meals out of a bag of carrots and limiting ourselves to eight ounces of milk per dinner. Everything – save the milk – got bought on sale, stocking-up on good bargains (like 12 pounds of butter a few weeks back).
Had we been among the Missourians on food stamps, in December we would have been way over our budget of $2.00 per person per meal.
Ironically, that two bucks represents the all-time high in benefits. Before the pandemic, the typical Missouri benefit came up shy of $1.40 per person per meal.
Now, every month for decades professional shoppers for the United States Department of Agriculture price-out what it takes to feed a family. Food stamps (in federal speak the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) originally related back to the “Thrifty Food Plan” which assumes some one in the home spends better than three hours a day shopping and cooking, stocking up on seasonal bargains and adjusting purchases based on price conditions. All meals get prepared from base ingredients – no instant potatoes or store-bought spaghetti sauce.…Raise your hand if you spent three hours shopping and cooking yesterday.
Still, per USDA’s December 2020 report, even that thrifty shopper had to spend at least $1.69 on average per person per meal to put mostly healthy food on the table.
More realistic is the USDA “Low-Cost Plan” which, in December, expected good shoppers to spend $2.19 per person per meal.
So, here in COVID America millions upon millions of workers have lost their jobs or seen their income slashed. While bonus unemployment payments came, went and returned, the core benefit always available to struggling families has been food stamps. For many working poor families food stamps are the only government help they get.
Yes, in the past year pantries and special food distributions shared millions of meals with our neighbors. Still, day in, day out these efforts pale compared to food stamps. Traditionally, 95¢ of every hunger dollar comes from federal government sources, mainly food stamps and the school meal program. Even with all the extra effort here and about the nation in recent months, I’d bet lunch money that food stamps still represent better than 90¢ of every dollar in food aid.
First the good news: the Biden administration supports pouring extra money (another 15%) into food stamps, and, his folks are open to moving from the Thrifty Food Plan to the Low-Cost Plan as the program’s bedrock.
Yes, food stamps cost taxpayers billions of dollars a month. Yet, no one sends their food stamps to a hedge fund based in the Cayman Islands. That money gets spent in grocery stores and at farmers markets across the nation. Researchers track $1.54 in net economic activity for each dollar in stamps issued!
Bad news time: as they have for decades, many Republicans call feeding hungry kids and adults “welfare” and want food stamps cut, not expanded. Some thought the old $1.40 per meal benefit excessive, “rewarding” people for not helping themselves. As the federal government wrestles a national debt above $28 trillion, well, food stamps stand a better chance of getting cut that fighter planes.
The richest nation on the planet can afford to feed its people. A permanent increase in benefit amounts for the 700,000+ Missourians – and more than 40 million Americans in all – to, say, an average of $2.25 per person per meal will put more healthy food tables and improve the lives of many of our neighbors.
Oh, I understand that SNAP has administrative quirks and some participants do buy soda and chips with their benefits. Food stamps still require diligent oversight and a lot of education about healthy eating and shopping is needed. Those issues need to be addressed – after the program is stabilized and funded to give families a decent shot at buying the healthy foods they need.
By the way, the menu at my house tonight: leftover meat, biscuits, carrots and fruit. Plus a small glass of milk.
Glenn