The Food Stamp Program: history, nutrition education, and impact

The Food Stamp Program has grown from a modest effort to distribute excess farm commodities during the Great Depression to the nation's largest food assistance and nutrition program, serving almost 27 million persons in fiscal year 2006, at a cost of more than 30 billion dollars to federal taxpayers. In 1990 Congress authorized cost sharing for food stamp nutrition education. Since 1992-when only seven states had approved food stamp nutrition education plans totaling 661,076 dollars in federal dollars-the nutrition education program has grown exponentially. In 2007, there were 52 food stamp nutrition education plans for states and territories approved at a total cost of more than 275 million dollars. The purpose of this review is to give an overview of the Food Stamp Program from its inception in May 1939 through 2006, including program milestones, changes that have occurred as the result of legislation, and the growth and effectiveness of nutrition education to Food Stamp Program participants. Future investigations are needed to study processes for development and validation of evaluation measures as required by the US Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service and to examine the effects of food stamp nutrition education on behavior changes affecting health and nutrition of Food Stamp Program participants.