The Trump administration is thinking inside the box.
President Donald Trump wants to drastically scale back food stamps and replace them with a “food box” delivery program — like Blue Apron.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters on Monday about the plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to redesign the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) as “America’s Harvest Box.” Under the plan, more than 16 million households would have half of their benefits go toward the food box delivery program.
“What we do is propose that, for folks who are on food stamps — part, not all — part of their benefits come in the actual sort of — and I don’t want to steal somebody’s copyright — but a Blue Apron-type program where you actually receive the food instead of receive the cash,” Mulvaney said.
Blue Apron is a company that sells weekly meal service kits that come with ingredients and recipes that are then cooked at home by the customer. Three meals a week for a family of four comes to about $140 in the New York area. Among the offerings are beef medallions and scallion salsa verde and salmon and dukkah-spiced vegetables, according to Blue Apron’s website. (Blue Apron declined to comment.)
Chicago-based Top Box Foods also runs a similar program — but rather than meal kits, it delivers pre-selected boxes of healthy, affordable groceries. The company was founded by Chris Kennedy, the son of Ethel and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in 2012, and accepts SNAP benefits to pay for the boxes, according to its website.
Under the government’s current program, food stamp recipients use a payment card, similar to a debit card, to buy food, and the USDA has strict rules about what can be bought with the benefits. Alcohol, household items and pet food, among other items, cannot be purchased.
The Trump administration proposal could shake up the country’s largest program designed to battle domestic hunger issues. The proposed budget, released Monday, would gut SNAP benefits by $17.2 billion in 2019, about 22 percent of the program’s total cost last year. USDA claims the new plan would save $129.2 billion over 10 years.
Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, called the new proposal a “bold, innovative approach,” noting that the food placed in the box would be grown by American farmers and producers.
“It maintains the same level of food value as SNAP participants currently receive, provides states flexibility in administering the program, and is responsible to the taxpayers,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
Mulvaney also said it would cut costs.
“It lowers the cost to us because we can buy prices at wholesale, whereas they have to buy it at retail,” Mulvaney said. “It also makes sure that they’re getting nutritious food. So we’re pretty excited about that. That’s a tremendous cost savings.”
Democratic lawmakers excoriated the proposal on Tuesday.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., called the idea “outrageous” and “a cruel joke.”
“This sounds like something from the Great Depression, not 2018,” he tweeted, saying it could hurt small businesses and burden those who live in rural areas.
Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., called it “expensive & unrealistic” in a tweet, while Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who said she raised her children on food stamps, called the idea “offensive.”
“As a single mother who relied on food stamps to help feed my boys, I can’t overstate how offensive this proposal is,” she tweeted. “Low-income families need more access to fresh produce & healthy foods, not less.”
Genius
Genius?
How do you figure?
You might want to tune into today’s broadcast, I’m going to cover this article.
Looking forward to it. I’m going to make my tea and listen to it now.
another shyster scam
Healthy food? Yeah, I bet! Probably loaded with GMOs and chemicals…better to kill off all the “useless eaters” that way… But that’s the tip of the iceberg–folks getting “SNAP” cards ought to be able to pick out the food they want (healthy or not, good food or junk food) and not have the govt., which cares less about them than even supposedly righteous people do, dictate to them what they will eat. Keep in mind, Donald ol’ boy, that in Europe, where illegals (Muslim or not) are given food in boxes, the illegals simply trash the food because it’s not the food they want. In other words, stop trying to look as if you give a crap about people you’d rather give a crap (or a piece of s**t ) TO!
Not sure why, but this Trump idea keeps bringin’ this song to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NArRLdKmkb4
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It sounds good, but they have to find a way to make it sound good. (that’s a politician’s job) I’m willing to bet that one of Trump’s buddies is going to make billions by becoming the nation’s largest food distributor overnight.
Also….all of the produce sold in Walmart is grown by prison labor, so this may be a plan to have the imprisoned slaves feeding the “free” slaves while Trump’s buddy rakes in the cash for it all.
The ball-and-chain crew will be gardening for the duration of their sentence, and the food will go to the wetbacks. On the upside, there’s a lot of food stamp money that gets spent on anything but food, so there’s an advantage to this too.
Customized food intended for a specific recipients, courtesy of the government? You’d be a fool to eat whatever poison comes in that box.