United States to impose biggest increase in history on food program

United States plans to impose largest increase in history on food aid program after revising nutritional standards, an initiative that will allow the poorest families in the country to have greater purchasing power in supermarkets, but which will also significantly increase the country’s spending.

According to information provided by the New York Times, the new rules, which will be officially announced on Monday and will come into force next October, average average benefits will increase by more than 25% from pre-pandemic levels.

All of the 42 million people who receive this type of aid, mainly consisting of food vouchers or coupons.

The measure does not require approval in the legislative chambers, and, Unlike the aid offered during the pandemic, the changes will prevail in the long term.

For at least a decade, critics of this aid program have pointed out that they are too rare to provide adequate nutrition.

According to figures proposed by the New York newspaper, more than three-quarters of households that receive stamps use stamps in the first half of the month, and researchers have linked this lack of food to a variety of problems, ranging from higher hospital admissions to lower school attendance or poorer academic performance.

Under the new rules, the average monthly benefit per person would increase by $ 36 from the current $ 121.

In an interview last week, United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stressed the importance of this food aid that one in eight Americans receives and that they currently cost $ 79 billion per year, which according to him “stabilizes” the democracy of the country.

“We have a Constitution and a Declaration of Independence, but if we had 42 million hungry, very hungry Americans, they wouldn’t be happy and there would be political instability,” Vilsack said.

The new plan will cost about $ 20 billion more per year and is the first adjustment to the cost of a nutritious diet that the United States Department of Agriculture has made since 1962., regardless of increases due to inflation.

(With information from EFE)

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