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Trump's budget proposes a radical change to food stamps that would make it a 'Blue Apron-type' program

February 13, 2018 from BusinessInsider:

"President Donald Trump's new fiscal year 2019 budget includes a radical proposed change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, typically referred to as food stamps, that would see part of the program turn into a meal-delivery service. "

"As part of the budget, the Department of Agriculture — which runs the SNAP program — would send basic food items to households receiving more than $90 a month in SNAP assistance in boxes. "

"'Under the proposal, households receiving $90 or more per month in SNAP benefits will receive a portion of their benefits in the form of a USDA Foods package, which would include items such as shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit, vegetables, and meat, poultry or fish,' the budget reads. "

"According to the proposal states would be allowed to determine the method of delivery 'through existing infrastructure, partnerships, and/or directly to residences through commercial and/or retail delivery services.'"

"The USDA boxes would have "shelf-stable" foods meaning that the produce and meats would not be fresh and come in non-perishable form like cans."

" The Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit working to end hunger in the US, blasted the proposal.

"The new boxes will be 'a Rube-Goldberg designed system of commodity distribution via food boxes that will be administratively costly, inefficient, stigmatizing, and prone to failure, and that will return the country to Depression-era anti-hunger approaches,' said the group in a statement."