Restaurant Meal Program

Fast food and food stamps: Big controversy, small program, By Pamela M. Prah, September 20, 2011, Stateline.org: “The notion that welfare recipients might be able to buy fast food with their food stamps caused a ruckus on blogs and Twitter earlier this month, but some key facts often got muddled. ‘Restaurants want a piece of food stamp pie,’ read the headline of a recent USA Today story that said fast food restaurants ‘are lobbying for a piece of the action’ as the number of businesses approved to accept food stamps grew by a third from 2005 to 2010. The article correctly notes that since the 1970s, states have had the option of creating what the federal government calls a ‘Restaurant Meal Program’ for food stamp recipients. But few states actually have created them. One of the reasons is because eligibility is restricted to the homeless, disabled or elderly who get food stamps. The programs are not open to everyone – a crucial fact that was missed when the story went viral. The point of the restaurant meal program is to help those food stamp recipients who may not be able to cook for themselves or don’t even have a place to cook, explains Aaron Lavallee, a spokesman for the U.S Department of Agriculture. Otherwise, these folks have few options for using their food stamps…”