The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, helps nearly 42 million Americans, or 12.3% of the population with no or low income or assets, buy essential groceries. The programme, run by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, offers monthly benefits, which are uploaded to electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards for use at authorised retailers and online stores to purchase food.
The programme is known to have had one of the strongest anti-poverty effects on any US benefits scheme. The scheme kept over 6.6 million, including 3 million children, above the poverty line before the pandemic. The SNAP benefits are particularly crucial during the holiday season, when food banks are the busiest.
