Food Stamp Program
The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is designed to increase the nutrition levels of low-income households, increase the purchasing power of low-income families and provide nutrition education. It provides low-income households with benefits they can use like cash at most grocery stores to ensure that they have access to a healthy diet.
Many low-income individuals who are eligible for food stamp benefits do not participate. Approximately 15 million people who were eligible for food stamps did not participate in 2004 nationwide. In Texas, only 58 percent of those eligible participate, leaving millions of dollars on the table. Myths and stigma are powerful barriers preventing access to nutrition assistance to those who need it most.
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Food Stamp PSA (English)
Food Stamp PSA (Spanish)
Food Stamp Brochure (English)
Food Stamp Brochure (Spanish)
Get help applying for Food Stamps
Making America Stronger: U.S. Food Stamp Video (Approx. 14 minutes)
NOTE: This video contains some graphic images of the effects of malnutrition and hunger on children.
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Food stamps help the most vulnerable in Texas.
- 2,622,548 Texans use food stamps to buy food every month.
- Texas food stamp households receive, on average, $1.04 per person, per meal in food stamp benefits.
- The Food Stamp Program added $2,939,331,493 into the Texas economy in 2006, benefiting farmers, grocers and small business throughout the state.
- About 80% of food stamp benefits go to households with children, many of them in working families.
- By increasing the share of eligible households that participate in the Food Stamp Program by just five percentage points, Texas would provide food stamps to an additional 189,000 low-income Texans, bring $123,300,000 into Texas' local economy and result in $226,900,000 of new economic activity.
Food Stamps are effective, efficient and closely monitored.
The Food Stamp Program is efficiently targeted to reach people who have the most difficulty affording an adequate diet. More than 95 percent of benefits go to households with incomes below the poverty level; nearly all of the remaining beneficiaries are elderly or disabled. USDA data show that food stamp error rates are at an all time low.
A full-time minimum wage worker earns the equivalent of just under half of the poverty level for a family of four. Even with the earned income tax credit (EITC), this family’s income is only about 70 percent of poverty. Food stamps make it possible for such working poor families to stretch their income.
Food stamp benefits are provided in the form of an electronic benefit card that can be used in supermarket checkout lines only for the purchase of food.
Changes to the Food Stamp Program that reduce eligibility or benefits cannot be adequately replaced by food banks and other private charities, or by local communities suffering the loss of local jobs. These agencies are already struggling to meet growing demands driven by long-term unemployment, falling wages, and rising fuel prices.
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Food Stamp Improvments Under the Passed Farm Bill |
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Renames the Food Stamp Program the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Raises the minimum standard deduction that households with one to three members receive from $134 to $144 in FY 2009 with annual inflation adjustments in later years.
Removes the cap on the dependent care deduction.
Raises the minimum benefit that one and two person households receive from $10 a month to 8 percent of the thrifty food plan for a household of one.
Excludes combat income received by service members who are deployed to a combat zone.
Adjusts the food stamp asset limits — $2,000 for most households and $3,000 for households with elderly or disabled members — for annual inflation (rounded down to the nearest $250).
Exclude all tax-preferred retirement accounts.
Exclude all tax-preferred education accounts.
Extends "simplified reporting" to seniors, the disabled.
States currently have an option to extend 5 months of transitional food stamps to families with children that leave cash assistance programs funded under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
Phases out food stamp coupons in favor of EBT (in Texas, Lone Star) cards.
Disqualifies individuals from food stamps for:
(1) intentionally obtaining cash by using food stamps to purchase a product that has a returnable container, discarding the product, and returning the container for the deposit amount; or
2) intentionally selling food that was purchased using food stamp benefits.
Provides $20 million for a pilot program that would provide incentives to supermarkets and other food stores to encourage food stamp households to purchase fruits, vegetables, or other healthy foods.
(source: CBPP.org)
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Food stamps benefit farmers, the food industry, and the economy.
- USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates that each $5 of food stamps generates almost $10 in total economic activity.
- Changes in food stamp policy have significant impacts on economic activity and household income across the economy, according to an ERS study finding that hypothetical cuts in food stamp benefits reduce food demand and farm production.
- Paired with unemployment insurance, food stamps are a vital part of America’s front-line defense against recession. They help to prevent hunger in families with laid-off workers that fall into poverty, provide temporary support until these families can get back on their feet, and quickly get federal support into local communities when times are tough.
The Food Stamp Program helps individuals and communities hit by disasters.
- When natural or man-made disasters hit, the Food Stamp Program provides timely, critical resources to help people cope, and is an important ingredient for physical and economic recovery.
- Through the Food Stamp Act, Texas received $91,342,890 in disaster food stamp benefits after Hurricane Katrina, and $8,314,076 in disaster food stamp benefits following Hurricane Rita.
Learn more about hunger in Central Texas.
Sources: America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network (
www.secondharvest.org); Food Research Action Center (
www.FRAC.org); Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (
www.CBPP.org); Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (
www.austinfoodbank.org); U.S. Department of Agriculture (
www.usda.gov).
