What You Can and Can’t Buy on SNAP Food Assistance
As an addendum to my May 16 article on SNAP, the program formerly known as food stamps, the federal government has strict rules on what you can and can’t buy with the benefits put on the debit cards they issue.
Those cards have an advantage over the old stamps because they create an electronic record of what the recipient buys.
Basically, the list is designed to prevent people from buying anything that is not essential food at a supermarket, and it also aims to prevent purchases of anything resembling takeout.
Here’s the basic list of dos and don’ts:
Some of the items households can purchase:
l Breads and cereals.
l Fruit and vegetables.
l Meat, fish and poultry.
l Dairy products.
Some of the items households cannot purchase:
l Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco.
l Non-food items such as pet food, soap, paper products and household supplies.
l Food to be eaten in the store.
l Hot foods.
l Vitamins and medicine.
SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Interestingly, just last week I read about a proposal to add sodas to the list of banned foods. The idea here is that the government should be more proactive in steering people away from caloric junk food especially when tax dollars are involved.
The article, from Reuters news service, includes a couple of eye-opening statistics:
One in eight Americans are on SNAP.
The program costs $58 billion a year nationwide.
That cost is a whopping 40 percent of the USDA’s budget, and more money than is spent on all the USDA’s crop subsidy and land-stweardship programs.
