ABSTRACT
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 14 percent of all U.S. households in 2014 experienced some level of food insecurity. This included 48.1 million adults and 7.9 million children (Coleman-Jensen et al. 2015). The number of food-insecure households increased significantly over the recent recession, from 11 percent of all households in 2008 to between 14 and 15 percent since. Despite this increase in apparent need, the U.S. Congress cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as “food stamps,” by $800 million in 2014, and by a total of $8.6 billion over the next decade. Even that cut was seen as a bit of a victory by program defenders, inasmuch as House Republicans initially sought closer to $40 billion in cuts.
