My intellectual love affair with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’s Off the Charts Blog continues with their work on SNAP (formerly Food Stamps). I always find myself trying to correct misconceptions about SNAP and how it impacts the lives of low-income Americans. I may start memorizing the urls for these CBPP fact sheets. It would save me so much time.
The first Policy Basics: Introduction to SNAP provides an overview of what SNAP is, who is eligible for SNAP, program costs, special features, effectiveness and efficiency, the application process, and the amount of money for which families are eligible. And as always the fact sheet makes great use of visuals like this one:
The second, SNAP is Effective and Efficient, is aimed at the inner policy wonk inside all of us. (Okay, maybe just me) It takes the reader through why SNAP is such an important safety net for low-income Americans. To make a long story short, it is important because it works! One reason it works is because we are getting better at providing the service efficiently, as evidenced by the chart below that shows the decrease in overpayment and underpayment in SNAP.
Thank you CBPP for making this policy wonk a more informed advocate!
