SNAP and Food Retailers

Posted on September 1, 2011 by townsend

• Vendors multiply for food stamps, By Jonathan Ellis and Megan Luther, August 27, 2011, Argus Leader: “The number of people on food stamps in South Dakota has jumped 75 percent in the past five years, meaning one of every eight South Dakotans now is in the program. In 2009, the latest year numbers were available, food stamp participants in this state spent $111.2 million. For companies that sell food, those statistics represent opportunity. And that’s why from 2005 to 2010, the number of vendors certified by the United States Department of Agriculture to take food stamps in South Dakota rose 19 percent to 622 vendors, according to an Argus Leader analysis of USDA data…”
• Fast-food restaurants lobby for slice of food stamp sales, By Jonathan Ellis and Megan Luther, August 27, 2011, Argus Leader: “The main goal of the nation’s food stamp program has been to supplement the buying power of low-income residents when they shop for unprepared foods at grocery stores. But a major restaurant company is lobbying the federal government on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, federal lobbying records show. Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands has allies among advocates for the hungry who hope to give restaurants a greater role in SNAP…”
• Michigan restaurants hungry to accept Bridge Cards, By Jaclyn Trop, September 1, 2011, Detroit News: “Michigan has experienced an explosion in the number of restaurants participating in a program that allows some residents who receive food assistance to redeem their benefits for a hot meal. In the past year and a half, the number of restaurants approved to use Michigan’s Bridge Cards – debit-style cards – to serve food to recipients who are blind, homeless or 60 years and older has grown to 105 restaurants from eight, said Christina Fecher, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Human Services, which oversees the program. That is a jump of 1,200 percent. Prior to this, the program that started around 1996 had only three restaurants participating, she said. The reason behind the surge of interest among local eateries isn’t clear to state and restaurant industry officials. But it has coincided with the growth of Michigan’s overall food assistance program – including a 57 percent increase in the state’s recipients from 2006 to 2010 and a 127 percent jump in its funding to $2.8 billion during the same time, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture…”