Harvard Public Health, August 2024
Sixty years ago this week, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act of 1964 into law. The program has been largely successful in its goals to reduce food insecurity and poverty. It has been less successful, however, at getting nutritious food to the people who rely on it, with studies suggesting SNAP recipients are less healthy than people not using the program. Researchers continue to look for ways to fix that.
Last year, Northeastern University public policy professor Christopher Bosso published Why SNAP Works: A Political History—and Defense—of the Food Stamp Program. It should come as no surprise that the author of a book with that title sees many big reasons to celebrate the program on its 60th anniversary. In an op-ed, Bosso offers four—along with two ways SNAP could improve.
