By Gilda Duran
President Trump is on a mission to reform the SNAP program, also known as food stamps, which allows 42 million Americans, low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, to purchase some food items from grocery stores, farmer markets, convenience stores and bodegas.
The average Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (food stamp) recipient gets about $122 a month. The administration is proposing to replace more than 40 percent of SNAP benefits given to recipients with a Harvest Box containing foods selected and distributed by the government.
The proposal, for fiscal 2019 budget, would replace about half of the money most families receive. The plan is that a box would be made up of 100 percent U.S. grown and produced food and would include items like milk, peanut butter, canned fruits and meats, and cereal. These items are items that are a staple in an American kitchen, but are they going to be fresh?
I believe this proposal would reduce waste, fraud and help US companies doing business in the US. This plan could also hurt the little bodegas in Lawrence of their livelihood. It sounds like a good reform; however, I can’t help finding similarities with socialist countries that impose what the poor will eat.
I traveled to Cuba in the year 2000 and that’s what I saw. In Cuba you eat what the government decide you should eat and how much. I hope if this plan passes that a cultural component is added thus people receive food that they will eat. That people with dietary restrictions like diabetics are taken into consideration.
I would also like to see Latino companies like Goya, Bustelo, or Badia be part of the companies that will sell to the federal government.
