Putting the ‘Food’ in Food Stamps: Food Eligibility in the Food Stamps Program from 1939 to 2012

Abstract

Since its first operation in 1939, the Food Stamps Program has chosen a number of approaches to defining eligible foods. The changes in these definitions over the program’s long history have much to reveal about the politics of nutrition and welfare in the United States. In Part I, this Article examines the history of the Food Stamps Program and the definitions of eligible foods throughout the program’s existence. In Part II, this Article discusses three frames for understanding the Food Stamps Program—welfare, nutrition, and agricultural subsidy—and analyzes the tension between the political goals advanced by each frame. In Part III, this Article suggests two methods for increasing the nutritional focus of the Food Stamps Program: first, by changing other agricultural subsidies that distort the food environment and second, by creating food stamp bonuses for fruit and vegetable purchases. Understanding the history of food stamps and the program’s three primary political frames creates the best method for understanding how the current program can effectively achieve its nutritional goals.