Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
United States government food assistance program
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly and colloquially still known as the Food Stamp Program, or simply food stamps, is a United States federal government program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income persons to help them maintain adequate nutrition and health. It is a federal aid program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA), though benefits are distributed by specific departments of U.S. states (e.g., the Division of Social Services, the Department of Health and Human Services, etc.).
In fiscal year 2025, SNAP served an average of about 42.4 million people per month. Benefits totaled about $95.8 billion and were included in approximately $102.6 billion in total program costs. In 2017, approximately 9.2% of American households obtained SNAP benefits at some point, with approximately 16.7% of all children living in households with SNAP benefits. Beneficiaries and costs increased sharply with the Great Recession, peaked in 2013 and declined to 2017 as the economy recovered. It is the largest nutrition program of the 15 administered by FNS and is a key component of the social safety net for low-income Americans. SNAP fraud is rare.
The amount of SNAP benefits received by a household depends on the household's size, income, and expenses. For most of its history, the program used paper-denominated "stamps" or coupons—worth $1 (brown), $5 (blue), and $10 (green)—bound into booklets of various denominations, to be torn out individually and used in single-use exchange.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” is united States government food assistance program. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Supplemental, Nutrition and Assistance, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “united States government food assistance program” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q556318. VIAF identifies the subject as 144647044. The Library of Congress control number is no2009120735. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025, 2017 and 2013.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program primary sources, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program archive and Supplemental research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.