The United States plans to impose the largest increase in the history of its food aid program after revising its nutrition standards, an initiative that will allow the poorest families in the country to have more purchasing power in supermarkets, but will also substantially increase the country expenses.
According to information advanced by the New York Times , the new rules, which will be officially announced this Monday and which will take effect next October, mean that average profits will increase more than 25% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
All of the 42 million people who receive this type of aid, made up mainly of food stamps or coupons .
The measure does not require approval in the legislative chambers, and, unlike the aid offered during the pandemic, the changes will be imposed in the long term.
For at least a decade, critics of this aid program have pointed out that they were too scarce to provide an adequate diet.
According to figures provided by the New York newspaper, more than three-quarters of the households that receive the stamps deplete them in the first half of the month, and researchers have linked this lack of food to various problems, from a higher number of hospital admissions to a lower attendance in the schools or worse scholastic results.
Under the new rules, the average monthly benefit per person would rise $ 36 from the current $ 121.
In an interview last week, the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, Tom Vilsack, stressed the importance of these food aid that one in eight Americans receive and that currently have a cost of 79,000 million dollars annually, of which he said that ” stabilizes “ the democracy of the country.
“We have a Constitution and a Declaration of Independence, but if we had 42 million Americans starving, very hungry, they would not be happy and there would be political instability , “ Vilsack said.
The new plan will cost about $ 20 billion more a year, and is the first cost adjustment of a nutritious diet that the US Department of Agriculture has made since 1962, regardless of increases for inflation. EFE