USDA’s America’s Harvest Box is Step Toward Addressing SNAP Nutrition Deficiencies
February 13 2018 - 5:53PM
Business Wire
Physicians Committee’s Healthy Staples Plan Provides Greater
Choice of Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Beans
America’s Harvest Box, proposed in the president’s FY2019 budget
request, is a step toward ensuring that Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) participants get the grains, vegetables,
beans, and fruit they need to stay healthy, says the nonprofit
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
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The doctors group recommends Congress consider this proposal and
look to refine the program along the lines of the Physicians
Committee’s Healthy Staples plan, which would provide SNAP
participants greater choice of healthful foods.
The budget request proposes that more than 80 percent of SNAP
recipients would receive a monthly America’s Harvest Box with items
such as juice, grains, ready-eat-cereals, pasta, peanut butter,
beans, and canned fruits and vegetables, which would replace about
half of their current SNAP benefits. The remaining SNAP benefits
would go on debit cards to be used in grocery stores.
“It’s great to see the USDA recognize that SNAP is lacking basic
nutritional requirements, which is exacerbating obesity, heart
disease, and diabetes among the millions of Americans who rely on
this critical program. America’s Harvest Box is a positive sign
that the USDA is aware of the growing problem, and this is a good
move to the extent it focuses on a healthier SNAP,” says Susan
Levin, M.S., R.D., director of nutrition education for the
Physicians Committee. “Our Healthy Staples plan takes that idea to
the next level by allowing participants to choose from a wide
variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans. Also, these foods
can be provided at any store, without the home delivery component
detailed in the president’s budget.”
Each month, SNAP provides nutrition assistance to 44 million
low-income individuals. Two-thirds of SNAP participants are
children, elderly, or adults with disabilities. But SNAP isn’t
currently set up to help them get the good nutrition they need.
Forty-four percent of adult SNAP participants are obese, versus
33 percent for nonparticipants at the same income level
nonparticipants. They also have an increased risk of death from
heart disease and diabetes, compared to SNAP-eligible
nonparticipants.
Levin and Physicians Committee president Neal Barnard, M.D.,
detailed Healthy Staples in “A Proposal for Improvements in the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” published in the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine.
The Physicians Committee’s Healthy Staples plan is inspired by
the USDA’s Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, which is
based on foods deemed to provide good nutrition. When WIC began
promoting more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, childhood
obesity declined for participants, according to a new study in JAMA
Pediatrics.
SNAP participants choosing solely from Healthy Staples would
likely get more than twice the fiber, iron, vitamin E, and folate;
almost twice the potassium, calcium, and magnesium; almost 40
percent more vitamin D; and more than five times more beta-carotene
than those following a typical American diet. A Healthy Staples
participant would also consume 65 percent less fat and 85 percent
less saturated fat, and the excess of 250 milligrams of cholesterol
consumed daily would be reduced to essentially zero.
Earlier this year, the American Medical Association also asked
the USDA to incentivize healthful foods and discourage or eliminate
unhealthful foods.
To speak to Ms. Levin or Dr. Barnard, please contact
jmcvey@pcrm.org or 202-527-7416.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes
preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages
higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research and
medical training.
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Physicians Committee for Responsible MedicineJeanne S. McVey,
202-527-7316 jmcvey@pcrm.org