Policies include pre-formulated courses of action or principles that provide the basic guidelines for decision-making and behavior within an organization or governmental entity. It guides the enactment of Laws to promote certain goals and clarity and be a basis for officials to make decisions in day-to-day cases. A critique of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a United States policy, shows its application, benefits, and how it has fared in the country.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is indispensable to American social policy. It responds to the rising food insecurity rates among low-income populations and supports the effects on their diet quality. The Department of Agriculture in the United States devised and supervised SNAP, a kind of financial aid for the eligible population where benefits are disbursed to the consumers via electronic benefits transfer (EBT cards) (Aussenberg & Falk, 2023). These cards are valid at major grocery stores and can be redeemed for various popular food items, providing the recipients with flexible and affordable options. The program includes families with monthly incomes below the minimum wage, those with significant housing obligations, and others who are ineligible or participate in other public programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has an important function for low-income populations by providing access to nutritious food, helping in public health matters, and reducing food insecurity (Aussenberg & Falk, 2023). As part of a larger social safety net, SNAP illustrates the government’s willingness to improve the living standards of individuals confronting economic difficulties and generally secure food for the nation.
Expected Improvements in Health
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is envisaged to positively affect the health status of the recipients by dealing with food insecurity and promoting access to a balanced diet. SNAP’s financial help gives low-income individuals/families better dietary choices, thus enhancing dietary quality (Samuel et al., 2023). The food security dimension is expected to provide vital support to public health by increasing access to fruit, vegetables, and other essential nutrients, which in turn will contribute to the prevention of nutrition-related chronic diseases. SNAP expects to improve physical health, especially among the disadvantaged, by reducing hunger and coverage of nuts, especially inadequacies. Moreover, the program helps pregnant women, new mothers, and infants through programs such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC), giving it the strength to ensure healthier starts. Serving as a core part of American social welfare policy, SNAP contributes to overall public health improvement by facilitating healthy eating, eradicating nutrition-related health disparities, and providing overall well-being to low-income individuals who require it.
Policy Implementation Problems and Mitigation
However, implementing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) encountered multiple difficulties. Some of them included administrative complexities, verification of eligibility, and the stigma of being part of the program. In order to cope with these challenges, the USDA has initiated several measures to improve application, outreach, and eligibility processes (United States Government Accountability Office, 2018). Recent system upgrades, such as electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, have minimized administrative responsibilities and improved benefit delivery efficiency. Educational efforts have been made to reduce the stigma and increase the participation of eligible people by adopting a more inclusive system. Along with the collaborations with community organizations and state agencies, the targeted outreach ensured that those in need were informed and near the benefits. Over time, repeated evaluation and adjustment of program policies have played a crucial role in adapting to changing challenges, allowing SNAP to better respond to the dynamic changing needs of its participants.
Financial Costs and Benefits of Implementing the Policy
SNAP is the most extensive domestic food assistance program in the United States, engaging over 42.1 million monthly recipients. It is operated jointly by state agencies and the federal government. The policy’s financial costs change on a yearly basis depending on the allocation. For instance, it had a federal budget of over $68 billion in 2017 (Cline & Aussenberg, 2018). In the fiscal year 2021, the federal government gave close to $111 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) budget and another allied food initiative (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2021). This sum of $105 billion amounted to 94 percent of SNAP expenditure, which was given as cash benefits. In the federal year 2023, a three-person family got financial assistance from the government if their monthly income did not exceed $2,495 and their annual income was below $29,940 (Sandroff, 2023). The monthly income limit is $1,920 ($23,040 yearly) for households with an older adult or a person with a disability. The highest monthly dosage is $281 for a one-person unit, $939 for a four-person household, and $1,691 for an eight-person unit. Such benefits represented a part of the financial aid that families could use to buy food – a matter of major significance since the main goal was food sufficiently. The significant amount of money shows the government’s willingness to help underprivileged groups. It reflects the SNAP program’s vital role in supplying essential nutritional assistance to the facility during the defined fiscal year.
Policy-Post-Implementation
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which has successfully offered financial aid, has markedly improved millions of Americans’ food security and health. Positive results from this activity are tackling food insecurity and promoting a healthier diet (Sandroff, 2023). However, there are still hurdles to overcome, such as the possibility of different levels of nutritional quality among participants. Others say that bought foods may not only sometimes for health. There is a need to adjust these policies through improved nutritional education and subsidies for healthier food alternatives. Furthermore, frequent evaluation and partnership with public health professionals could fine-tune the approach employed by SNAP, leading to consistently more excellent health improvement results.
Conclusion
SNAP plays a crucial role in the American nutrition strategy due to the aid it provides to combat food insecurity. This policy aims to strengthen well-being through the provision of food, thus addressing poor diets particularly prevalent among disadvantaged groups. It faced operational difficulties during its inception, including stigma and administration complications, but they were addressed by raising awareness and improving the system. As the budget numbers for SNAP show, the government is committed to improving its poor citizens’ livelihood so much that it has had to allocate considerable funds towards subsidies. However, notwithstanding its accomplishments, contemporary policy needs to be reworked continuously to maintain the highest standards of nutritional outcomes and improvements for recipients’ health.
References
Aussenberg, R. A., & Falk, G. (2023). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): A Primer on Eligibility and Benefits. Congressional Research Service.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2021). Policy Basics: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Cline, D. R., & Aussenberg, R. A. (2018). Errors and fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Congressional Research Service.
Samuel, L. J., Crews, D. C., Swenor, B. K., Zhu, J., Stuart, E. A., Szanton, S. L., & Thorpe, R. J. (2023). Supplemental nutrition assistance program access and racial disparities in food insecurity. JAMA Network Open, 6(6), e2320196-e2320196. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.20196
Sandroff, R. (2023, September 15). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Overview. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap-5187718
United States Government Accountability Office. (2018). Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Actions Needed to Better Measure and Address Retailer Trafficking. Report to Congressional Requesters.
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