SNAP Policy Recommendation

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Hello Jamie,
Thank you for your patience. In this particular task, you are being asked to present policy recommendations. How should such a document look like? I believe we need to draw from similar ones utilised officially so as to ensure that your submission looks and feels in terms of content and presentation as a policy change document. A good guide for this can be found here:

http://web.uvic.ca/~sdoyle/E302/Notes/Policy%20Recommendation.html

As per advise provided in this material, it would be best to be concise and focus on the issues. I think it would be good to follow the indirect though as discussions are essential to elaborate on the problems you have identified. So, knowing what you are being asked, let us determine an outline indirectly:

1. The Issue with SNAP - 150 words
2. Analysis of impact of current issues - 150 words
3. Policy recommendations (concentrate on 3) - 300 words
4. Rationale & Timeline 200 words
5. Situating the Policy (general, then localize with 1 policy as an example) - 150 words
6. Monitoring and Evaluation - 100 words

This should cover what you need. I think we need to get creative and technical especially in number 4-6 as this means presenting a proposal prior to actually doing field research. Remember - those who propose a policy change plan that purpose for their work to be easily adapted require extensive research and to do that - they would have had already invested time, effort and financial resources as is usually done by advocacy or interest groups. Not to worry, we will take the position that the research presented by Ohri, et.al. is detailed enough to warrant our own proposal. Just let me know if you need further help. I appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,
AE 105878/Xenia Jones

Policy Recommendation on SNAP Policy Change

The Issue

In the last decade we have come to appreciate as a nation the safety net provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, a fundamental feeding project that has its roots in the 30's when the US government established the food stamp program to feed the poorest and most marginalized of Americans. Distributed and supervised by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), it is a unique benefit for Americans and legal residents who are unable to feed themselves because of poverty and unemployment and is released through appropriate human services agencies in each American State and benefiting territories through a debit card system known as the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system which allows for those who qualify to access the system quite easily. The benefit is accessed in the same 'debit' system with other welfare benefits like the cash assistance schemes of various states so that through them, individuals & families are able to purchase food and goods from a good number of retailers. In 2012 alone, the EBT system has disbursed $74.6 billion in food assistance which was accessed by around 47.7 million Americans. Recession and unemployment has affected some parts of the US so much that in the city of Washington D.C. and the state of Mississippi, 1/5 of the population claimed the benefit and are dependent on it for nutrition. If the case therefore is that the benefit is 'feeding' the unfortunate and the hungry in America, surely then its essentiality is not in doubt? This is certainly the case BUT the issue is not about its necessity but its utilization and dispersion by the human services agencies supervising the regulation and access of the benefit and the use of the beneficiaries themselves - much of the ...