Fast food stamps

The food stamp program — that’s what most people still call it, rather than the official and unwieldy Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — was adopted to help Americans with low incomes put nutritious meals on their tables.

A record 45 million people were participating in the program as of May, according to Department of Agriculture statistics. White House data released last year estimated that one in eight Americans overall and one in four children are enrolled. Benefits paid out last year, according to the USDA, totaled $64.7 billion.

Through the years, as commerce and shopping habits have changed and people buy food at other venues besides grocery stores, retailers such as convenience stores, discount stores and drug stores have begun taking part in the program.

However, one clause in the Food Stamp Act of 1964 that set up the current program has remained unchanged — prepared foods aren’t covered. A change in the 1970s permitted states — which parcel out the benefits anyway — to let disabled, elderly or homeless people use food stamps in restaurants, but only a handful have done so.

One major fast-food chain — Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Long John Silver, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell — wants to change that. Federal lobbying records obtained by USA Today show Yum! has been working to get states to adopt the disabled/elderly/homeless restaurant exemption so its brands can become part of the food stamp program. We’d like to think they might have altruistic motives, but most likely they’re looking for part of that $64.7 billion.

The National Restaurant Association and various advocates for the hungry and homeless support Yum!’s efforts. Nutrition and health advocates, citing rising obesity rates and the diseases they produce, are horrified at the idea of people using food stamps to load up on fat- and sodium-filled fare at fast-food joints.

However, we’re also troubled by the notion of denying a food source to a homeless person with an Electronic Benefits Transfer or EBT card in his pocket but no means of preparing a meal. The restaurant exemption exists; the controversy seems to be about the companies with dollar signs in their eyes trying to expand it.

Here’s an idea: Don’t hinder the states that want to exercise the restaurant option for people who qualify, but also prod them to make it easier (by waiving transaction fees and streamlining paperwork) for their farmers’ markets to take food stamps.

That would give food stamp recipients something everyone deserves — choices.