Officials At Largest Colorado Food Bank Unsure About Trump Food Box Proposal
DENVER (CBS4) - Coloradoans who rely on SNAP benefits -- commonly referred to as food stamps -- could be seeing some dramatic changes.
Currently families approved for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program program are given a benefit card with a certain amount of money on it. Under President Donald Trump's 2019 budget proposal a portion of that funding would be put into boxed up, canned food instead.
"I don't want to steal somebody's copyright -- but a Blue Apron-type program where you actually receive the food instead of receive the cash," Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney told CBS News the boxes would be filled with 100 percent American-grown foods.
"It lowers the cost to us because we can buy prices at wholesale, whereas they have to buy it at retail," he said.
The boxes would be almost identical to those the government already provides to low-income seniors.
Food Bank of the Rockies spokeswoman Janie Gianotsos said they would consist of, for example, "fruit, two things of milk, four cans of green beans."
Gianotsos said they already pack and distribute more than 40,000 of those boxes a year.
She questioned how money would be saved by expanding that type of program.
"It's a huge undertaking and to take the people that are on SNAP -- more than 400,000 people in Colorado are on SNAP -- how are you going to get that food to those people?" Gianotsos said.
There are also concerns for some families who may have dietary or religious food restrictions.
