Corby Kummer: Changes in SNAP Benefits "Should Be Causing Dancing in the Streets"

Award-winning food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, highlighting the Biden administration’s revision in nutrition standards for SNAP. The changes made to the food stamps program are the largest in its history.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture specifically revised the Thrifty Food Plan, which is a list of two dozen food groups that the government uses to estimate a low-cost, healthy diet. The Thrifty Food Plan remains largely unchanged since its creation in the early 1960s, and has only been adjusted for inflation.

“Republicans and Democrats said, ‘go back to the drawing board — diets have changed, food availability has changed — what is the thrifty meal plan of today?’” Kummer said.

Kummer is the executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.