The Department of Agriculture, the agency that administers the food stamp program, has announced that it will spend $31.5 million on a new program that will promote a healthy diet for recipients of the assistance.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the Department of Agriculture, is developing the program to urge recipients of the SNAP food stamp program to choose more fruits and fresh foods.
“Too many struggling families do not have adequate access to nutritious food,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Monday. “Helping families purchase more fresh produce is clearly good for families’ health, helps contribute to lower health costs for the country, and increases local food sales for family farmers.”
The number of food stamp recipients has seen a gargantuan increase since Obama became president in 2008. Late in 2012 the number of those on the SNAP program had exceeded the populations of 24 states and the District of Columbia.
By 2014, enrollment in the program jumped to over 45 million Americans.
Even with historic levels of Americans now dependent on welfare and the middle class poorer today than it was in 1984, Obama continues to claim that his economic policies have made things better. Some claim that Hillary Clinton is going to base her campaign on capitalizing on Obama’s purported success on the economy and “finishing” the recovery he supposedly started.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.