It’s been 60 years since LBJ made food stamps permanent to end hunger, but food insecurity is still high (2024)

J. Jhondi Harrell, the founder and executive director of the Center for Returning Citizens (TCRC), remembers life before food stamps.

When he was 12, his father, a long-distance truck driver, had a heart attack. That was in 1967, and the family’s economic well-being plummeted as his mother became the sole provider. To help make ends meet, the family joined the food lines in their Levittown community, which doled out surplus agricultural commodities from the government.

“I have very good memories,” Harrell recalled. “The cheese was one of the best things you could get.”

Except it was also three years after food lines were supposed to be a thing of the past.

The Food Stamp Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on Aug. 31, 1964, made food stamps a permanent feature after several successful pilot programs, allowing families in need greater choice by shopping in local grocery stores. “The food stamp plan will be one of our most valuable weapons for the war on poverty,” Johnson promised at the signing ceremony.

The feeding of America

Food stamps usage exploded. In 1969, the country spent about $250 million on food stamps. By 1974, the deadline for states to fully implement food stamps, that figure escalated to around $4 billion (about $25.5 billion in today’s dollars). In fiscal year 2023, the federal government spent $112.8 billion on SNAP, or $211.93 per participant monthly.

Prior to 1974, some in need like Harrell and his mother still stood in line for surplus commodities like powdered milk, powdered eggs, and margarine. Part of the problem was the early days of food stamps required a cash contribution, but the surplus food distribution was free and provided a month’s worth of food.

“My mother was a good cook,” Harrell said, adding that a favorite meal was spaghetti and Spam.

But by the time Suzanna A. Urminska’s family needed food stamps in the early ’70s, the eligibility requirements had been nationally standardized. Her parents were refugees from Czechoslovakia, who fled the communist regime and eventually made their way to Hawaii. Urminska, a community food advocate from West Oak Lane, spent her entire childhood on SNAP.

She was born in 1978, a year after the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 passed, allowing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, to determine the cost of a healthy diet and eliminating the purchase requirement. It also changed the name from food stamps to SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Defeat food insecurity

Johnson had two goals: to improve nutrition for recipients and to increase income for farmers. He called the law “a realistic and responsible step toward the fuller and wiser use of our agricultural abundance.” Today, about 500,000 Philadelphians rely on SNAP benefits, but the country’s largest nutrition program has not yet eliminated food insecurity.

Across the city, 15 of every 100 households don’t have access to affordable, healthy food on a consistent basis. That looks like skipping a meal, not eating enough, or going hungry all day. And with food insecurity comes a bevy of physical and mental health issues, including the stigma of using food stamps.

Harrell’s mother, however, squashed talk of embarrassment. “My mother’s philosophy was there is more stigma to being hungry.”

» READ MORE: What is food insecurity? How Philly navigates hunger, food deserts, and access to good food.

The personal price of food insecurity

Urminska remembers when paper stamps were replaced with the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card in the early 2000s as part of President Bill Clinton’s historic welfare-to-work law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). It mandated that states switch over to the EBT system and gave them an Oct. 1, 2002, deadline.

“At times, when I became a parent, I used the card,” Urminska said. “It seems to have made [using food stamps] more anonymous. It seemed to me to make it a little more dignified.”

But PRWORA’s main focus was the fulfillment of Clinton’s campaign promise “to end welfare as we know it.” Welfare ceased to be an entitlement but became a time-limited benefit. It was seen as an effort to end recipients’ dependence on welfare and force them to work.

Urminska recalls her mother’s concern about the changes. She had her own small consultancy, working as an art preservationist, and three children. Food stamps were necessary to allow her to balance working and caring for the family.

“They wanted her to go to work as a grocery clerk, and that would have disrupted the entire family,” Urminska said.

Modernizing SNAP

An increase in SNAP usage is usually an economic indicator of hard times. When COVID-19 hit and people lost their jobs, Harrell began distributing free food. Even as the pandemic has abated, TCRC serves 10,000 people per month, and if he could rescue more food, he could help more people.

”People’s food stamps run out before the end of the month,” Harrell explained. That’s when they turn to food pantries. Harrell said he believes that SNAP users should get two payments per month instead of one monthly lump sum to help with this problem.

Urminska said she thinks those in need should get cash to spend as they see fit, putting an end to worrisome bureaucratic barriers like the ones that frustrated her mother.

There are also concerns that SNAP regulations have lost touch with the reality of life for working families when it maintains restrictions such as a ban on hot prepared foods.

As a recent editorial from Harvard Public Health noted, “The program still reflects 1960s-era assumptions that mom is at home cooking from scratch, not rushing from work to cobble dinner together. That $4.99 Costco rotisserie chicken is a lifesaver for working parents. Congress must update SNAP to the realities of life in 2024.”

It’s been 60 years since LBJ made food stamps permanent to end hunger, but food insecurity is still high (2024)

FAQs

It’s been 60 years since LBJ made food stamps permanent to end hunger, but food insecurity is still high? ›

It's been 60 years since LBJ made food stamps permanent to end hunger, but food insecurity is still high. In Philadelphia, 500,000 people depend on SNAP. But 15 out of 100 people are still food insecure.

What was the impact of the Food Stamp Act of 1964? ›

Among the official purposes of the Food Stamp Act of 1964 (PL 88-525) were strengthening the agricultural economy and providing improved levels of nutrition among low-income households; however, the practical purpose was to bring the pilot FSP under Congressional control and to enact the regulations into law.

What was the Food Stamp Act in 1960? ›

The Food Stamp Act (P.L. 88-525) provided permanent legislative authority to the Food Stamp Program, which had been administratively implemented on a pilot basis in 1962. On August 31, 1964 it was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

When did food insecurity become an issue in the US? ›

The first time hunger in the U.S. gained significant attention from policymakers was during the 1930s, when the Great Depression left a quarter of the American workforce unemployed.

Which president started the Food Stamp Program? ›

The initiative, called the “Food Stamps Plan,” was implemented in 1939 under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a key component of the New Deal program.

What was the main consequence of the Stamp Act? ›

The Act resulted in violent protests in America and the colonists argued that there should be "No Taxation without Representation" and that it went against the British constitution to be forced to pay a tax to which they had not agreed through representation in Parliament.

What was the result of the Stamp Act being repealed? ›

The repeal of the Stamp Act did not mean that Great Britain was surrendering any control over its colonies. The Declaratory Act, passed by Parliament on the same day the Stamp Act was repealed, stated that Parliament could make laws binding the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever."

What is the Welfare Reform Act of 1976? ›

A bill to amend title IV of the Social Security Act to improve and make more realistic various provisions relating to eligibility for aid to families with dependent children and the administration of the aid to families with dependent children program. The bill's titles are written by its sponsor.

Did welfare start in 1964? ›

Cash welfare in meager form existed since 1935,4 and some welfare expansion took place during the Kennedy administration. But under Johnson's Great Society, which began in 1964, benefits became substantially more generous and came under greater control of the federal government.

What food assistance program developed in the 1960s and formerly known as food stamps? ›

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. In fiscal year (FY) 2011, SNAP served more than 46 million Americans at a cost of more than $75 billion (FNS, 2012a).

Is there enough food to feed everyone? ›

There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. Yet 733 million people still go hungry.

What is the number one cause of food insecurity? ›

Poverty, unemployment and low wages lead to food insecurity. It's why Feeding America helps people experiencing food insecurity get the food and resources they need by increasing access to food in their communities. We also work locally and nationally to expand economic opportunities.

How much would it cost to end hunger in the US? ›

Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, has calculated the cost of ending hunger in the US at $25 billion. Hunger in the United States isn't a direct result of war, or crop failures, or massive inflation. Americans who are hungry simply don't have enough money to buy food.

What state has the most welfare recipients? ›

Based on SNAP data, California leads the pack with a staggering 1,911,000 SNAP households, followed closely by Florida (1,632,000) and Texas (1,595,000). New York and Pennsylvania complete the top five, emphasizing the correlation between high population states and the prevalence of welfare recipients.

When did the US start food stamps? ›

SNAP/Food Stamps/CalFresh was established in its modern form by the Food Stamp Reform Act of 1977. Its purpose was to act as a safety net against hunger for Americans with low incomes. In the latter half of the 1980s, the program was expanded due to severe domestic hunger.

What was the purpose of the Food Stamp Act of 1964? ›

To strengthen the agricultural economy; to help to achieve a fuller and more effective use of food abundances; to provide for improved levels of nutrition among low-income households through a cooperative Federal-State program of food assistance to be operated through normal channels of trade; and for other purposes.

How did the Food Stamp Act impact communities? ›

For struggling families and communities, SNAP is making a huge difference in their economic well-being and health. For example, SNAP is good for local economies – each dollar in federally funded SNAP benefits generates $1.79 in economic activity.

What was the effect of the Stamp Act quizlet? ›

However, the Stamp Act affected almost every American in every colony. It imposed a tax on newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents, and most other printed materials.

What was the impact of the Welfare Reform Act? ›

Over the next decade, the Federal Government enacted Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, Supplemental Security Income, and an array of additional programs. By 1995, the Nation had over 300 social programs, and Federal and state spending on the poor had jumped from around $40 billion to about $360 billion.

What do you think led to so many Americans on food stamps? ›

The results suggest that SNAP is operating effectively as an automatic fiscal stabilizer—nearly 50 percent of the increase in participation from 2007-2011 is due to the weak economy—but policy reforms expanding access and benefit generosity also affected participation, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the increase ...

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