SNAP was preceded by the original Food Stamp Program of 1939 and the pilot programs of the early 1960s.
See Figure 2-1 for a timeline of the dates of key SNAP legislation, as well as changes in participation and average benefit amounts over time. The TFP, basic eligibility rules, and benefit levels are the same throughout the contiguous United States. 2 Eligibility for benefits is based on a gross income limit of 130 percent of the federal poverty threshold for a given household size, and net income may not exceed 100 percent of that threshold (households that contain an elderly or disabled person are exempt from the gross income test). Because it needs $612 to purchase the TFP market basket, SNAP issues the household $312 in benefits. For example, a household of four people with net income of $1,000 per month is expected to spend $300 per month of its net income for food. To the extent that 30 percent of household income is insufficient to purchase an amount of food equal to the TFP market basket, the SNAP benefit is issued in an amount that, combined with 30 percent of household income, totals the TFP amount for that household size ( FNS, 2012b).
Other households receive the TFP amount minus 30 percent of their net income because the SNAP program assumes that each household with income can contribute 30 percent of that income to the purchase of food.
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Households with very little or no income receive the full TFP amount. This chapter reviews the history of SNAP, the SNAP benefit formula and eligibility, the definition of the SNAP allotment, trends in program participation and costs, and trends in food insecurity and poverty and how they are affected by the SNAP program. In fiscal year (FY) 2011, SNAP served more than 46 million Americans at a cost of more than $75 billion ( FNS, 2012a). SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program, is the nation's largest nutrition assistance program and a key automatic stabilizer of family well-being during economic downturns. Nutrition assistance programs offered by USDA include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) the National School Lunch and School Breakfast (School Meals) Programs, including summer food service the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Food Assistance for Disaster Relief the Emergency Food Assistance Program the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations and food distribution programs such as the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. Department of Agriculture (USDA) includes among its goals to increase food security and reduce hunger by increasing access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education for low-income Americans.