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SNAP-Ed Nutrition

Through K-State Research and Extension educators across the state, Kansas SNAP-Ed provides nutrition education to individuals and families who receive food assistance or who are eligible for food assistance. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Food Safety Inspection Service)Download this photo.

Food assistance supports rural and urban communities

Forerunner of SNAP program initiated in 1939

March 21, 2018

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- With talks underway in the nation’s capital on the 2018 Farm Bill, one of the topics under discussion is SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. The program is considered the nation’s first line of defense against hunger in communities large and small, and is funded through the farm bill.

“SNAP provides access to healthy food and nutrition education for low-income families and individuals across the U.S. and in Kansas,” said Sandy Procter, extension specialist and assistant professor in Kansas State University’s Department of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health. “It benefits elderly persons, low income persons even if they are working, unemployed households and households with disabled persons. It’s been called ‘the cornerstone of the nation’s nutrition safety net’ and effectively prevents hunger and household food insecurity in Kansas and the U.S.”

With a total federal outlay of $70.8 billion in fiscal year 2016, SNAP accounted for 51 percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual budget, according to a January, 2018 USDA-Economic Research Service report. About 14 percent of all Americans participated in the program each month in 2016.

A five-year study showed that 15.8 percent of all U.S. households in rural areas participate in SNAP, 15.3 percent of households in small towns receive benefits, and 12. 6 percent of U.S. households in larger metropolitan areas participate, according to the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization focused on poverty-related hunger.

The study also showed that 8.6 percent of households in rural Kansas participate in SNAP, while 11.2 percent of households in small towns receive benefits and 8.6 percent of Kansas households in metropolitan areas participate.

“SNAP benefits are important to communities – big and small, urban and rural,” said Procter, who coordinates the Kansas SNAP Education program.

With a focus on improving the nutritional health of low-income Kansans, she and a team of K-State Research and extension family and consumer science agents, specialists and nutrition educators work with people who qualify for or receive SNAP benefits on such topics as cooking with limited resources, understanding food labels, food safety, meal planning, nutrition and obesity prevention. The program is active in 75 of Kansas’s 105 counties.

Procter said a common misunderstanding about SNAP is that people stay on food assistance for long periods of time, but research shows that 50 percent of all new SNAP recipients will leave the program within nine months as they become more financially stable.

“According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, each $1 billion of retail generated by SNAP creates $340 million in farm production, $110 million in farm value-added and 3,300 farm jobs,” she said. “Additionally, every $1 billion of SNAP benefits creates 8,900 to 17,900 full-time jobs.”

“I think it is important to know that roughly 80 percent of the Farm Bill is funding for nutrition-related programs,” said Procter, adding that such programs as SNAP, WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and 13 others, are not only important to those who receive the benefits, but also to all communities due to the economic benefits they provide across the U.S.

More information on the Kansas SNAP-Ed program is available at http://www.he.k-state.edu/fnp/family-nutrition/ . Information about the SNAP program in general is available at https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap; https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/86924/err-243.pdf?v=43124 and https://hb772.weebly.com/history-of-the-food-stamp-program.html


NOTE: An earlier version of this article stated that 15.8 percent of SNAP participants across the country lived in rural areas, 15.3 percent lived in small towns and 12.6 percent lived in metropolitan areas, according to the Food Research and Action Center. This version has been updated to clarify that those percentages represent U.S. households in the various areas rather than individual recipients.

Sidebar

Facts about the SNAP Program

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is funded by U.S. taxpayers through the Farm Bill. The 2018 Farm Bill is currently under discussion by policy makers.

* With origins in the great depression, SNAP was previously called the Food Stamp Program. The idea for the first program, which ran from 1939 to1943, is credited to several people, most notably former Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program’s first administrator, Milo Perkins

“We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and under-nourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other. We set out to find a practical way to build a bridge across that chasm.” – Milo Perkins

* A pilot program began in 1961 and was permanently authorized in 1964.

* In its current form, SNAP gives low-income participants electronic benefits to use like debit cards to buy eligible food items in authorized retail food stores.

* In fiscal year 2016, monthly SNAP benefits averaged about $255 per household or $126 per person.

* An average of 44.2 million people living in 21.8 million households participated in the program per month in 2016 or about 14 percent of the nation’s population.

* SNAP serves the country’s most vulnerable populations. In fiscal year 2015, children, elderly and nonelderly adults with disabilities composed 64 percent of SNAP participants, and their households received 60 percent of SNAP benefits.

-- Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (“Design Issues in USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Looking Ahead by              Looking Back” Report, January 2018)

 

Source

Sandy Procter
785-532-1675
procter@ksu.edu

Website

Kansas SNAP-Ed Program

Written by

Mary Lou Peter
913-856-2335 Ext. 130
mlpeter@ksu.edu

At a glance

In communities large and small across the state, K-State Research and Extension educators, working through Kansas SNAP-Ed and partnering with other agencies, provide nutrition education to some of the state’s most vulnerable individuals and families, including children, the elderly and disabled individuals.

Notable quote

“SNAP benefits are important to communities – big and small, urban and rural.”

-- Sandy Procter, K-State Research and Extension specialist and coordinator of Kansas Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education

 

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K‑State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the wellbeing of Kansans.
Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan.