SNAP funding is key to keep the economy moving---turns case.

While advocates for local food and sustainable agriculture have suggested a number of provisions to help farms of all scales stay in business during the COVID-19 crisis, farmers have another support system already embedded in the relief and stimulus efforts. Food aid — like SNAP and WIC — is a critical component of any economic recovery package, but it does more than keep jobless people from going hungry. The goal of a stimulus is to strategically put money in pockets so the economy keeps moving, and the nutrition assistance programs in the stimulus package are a vital lifeline to help farmers and food producers weather this downturn.

How Nutrition Assistance Can Help Farmers

SNAP and WIC

The country’s two largest nutrition assistance programs are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Under normal conditions, SNAP provides low-income people with a monthly “benefit” that they can only spend on food. The requirements vary from state to state but typically, people need to be near the federal poverty line to qualify. The amount of the benefit varies based on income and household size. WIC works a little differently, and provides pregnant women and mothers with young children vouchers to purchase specific eligible foods, mostly healthy staples like dairy, fruit, vegetables, and infant formula.

In an economic downturn, nutrition assistance programs play an obvious role in feeding the hungry: more unemployed people means that more people qualify for government assistance. However, SNAP and WIC are also an opportunity to help stimulate the economy, and lawmakers can tweak the programs to encourage this. Doing things like increasing the amount of money people can receive every month can have big impacts. First, people who recieve more money specifically for food can spend more of their own money on other things, which helps stimulate the rest of the economy. Second, the increased amount of money that recipients spend on food helps farmers and food retailers keep their sales up and stay in business.