As more and more Americans apply for and receive food stamps (actually, it's called SNAP now, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), fast food restaurants, in particular fast food conglomerate Yum! Brand foods, are looking to cash in. Yum! Brand owns KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, among others, and they're lobbying their home state of Kentucky to allow SNAP recipients to use their stamps at the company's restaurants.Generally, food stamps only apply to non-prepared food -- stuff you can get in a grocery or convenience store, but not hot meals like those served at restaurants. However, some areas of California, Arizona and Michigan have already opened up restaurants to receive SNAP dollars, using a provision from the 1970s that "allows states to allow restaurants to serve disabled, elderly and homeless people," those unable or unequipped to prepare their own food. Yum! Brand wants more states to enact this provision, so they can rake in the food stamp dollars.In a country dealing with hunger and poverty and obesity, an attempt to make fast food even more available to the most vulnerable among us sparks strong reactions. Anti-hunger advocates feel that any increase in the availability of food is a good thing. Edward Cooney of the Congressional Hunger Center asks, "Think going hungry is better [than eating fast food]? I'm solidly behind what Yum! is doing." Coalition for the Homeless, too, says that for people who don't live near a grocery store and can't afford a restaurant, "this would allow people to get a reduced price meal at a small deli or a restaurant, and that does include fast-food restaurants," and they see that as a good thing. Public health advocates oppose the idea of food stamps going to fast food restaurants, just as they oppose fast food's current domination of the market among poor individuals who look to fast food for the cheapest, most plentiful calories. "It's preposterous that a company like Yum! Brands would even be considered for inclusion in a program meant for supplemental nutrition," said a spokeswoman for Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. A Grist food writer says, "I'm not crazy about the idea of expanding access to highly processed fast food to the elderly, disabled, or homeless poor," but concedes, "In many poor neighborhoods, fast food is the only restaurant game in town. That's the fundamental problem, of course."A writer at Seattle PI looks for a compromise between these positions, stating, "If government can afford to subsidize big industries – and let’s face it, allowing fast food places to accept food stamps is ultimately a subsidy program for the corporations who own them – it can also show some support for small produce farms. Our taxes would be well spent by keeping healthy nutrition affordable for everyone."What do you think? Would food stamps at restaurants help or harm the hungry? Or can we find a compromise here?
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