Food Stamps and Nutrition Programs in the 2002 Farm Bill

Publication Date: October 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

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Abstract:

Among the titles dealing with farm-support and other agriculture-related issues, Title IV of the 2002 farm bill (the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act; P.L. 107171) reauthorized appropriations for and substantially revised the Food Stamp program. It also included provisions affecting several other domestic food aid programs/activities operated under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture that have typically been included in farm bills: nutrition assistance block grants to Puerto Rico and American Samoa, the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), Community Food Projects, and rules governing foods used in domestic feeding programs such as the School Lunch program.

Beyond this traditional array of food assistance programs, the 2002 bill encompassed provisions for a new Seniors Farmers' Market program, a new Fruit and Vegetables pilot program, a set-aside to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables for schools, a Congressional Hunger Fellows program, the purchase of locally produced food, and changed eligibility rules for free and reduced-price school meals and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (the WIC program).