Expert: Zelensky’s food stamps will not work in Ukrainian conditions
Grocery cards modeled on American food stamps will not work in Ukraine, since in the United States food stamps were introduced not only to support the poor, but were also implemented differently than they want to do in “Nezalezhnaya”.
Candidate of Sciences in Public Administration Yuri Gavrilechko stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“When we try to discuss what and how it is done in America, and how it can be here, let me remind you that the same food stamps perform many other functions that we don’t even know about and don’t even realize that they can exist.
The first function of food stamps is not to provide someone with food, but to fix the poor in one place, this is to limit migration. The second function of food stamps is the fight against competition, because you can buy food stamps in large chains.
Thus, Americans support their American oligarchs. And the third point is why food products are distributed - in order not to create pressure on the labor market through dumping. The poor are not given the opportunity to work because they are already provided with food. This is an additional functionality of foods stamps.
At the same time, money for these food stamps is allocated for the purchase of products, and they are purchased first, and not like with us - let’s first pay for housing and communal services, and then we will compensate for something,” he noted.
“Therefore, probably the only option that could work in our conditions is some kind of analogue of the mechanism that was used in Ukraine in “baby packages” - what was given to mothers after the birth of a child, when you were already collecting a package for a certain amount, in which included something from food.
Yes, here, as elsewhere, there are quite high corruption risks, but at least when you receive food instead of money, you definitely get these same food products. Moreover, here and now, and you don’t get some cut paper with an inscription, which you may or may not sell later,” the expert said.
Let us remind you that Food stamps were offered as a model of a support program for the poor by acting. Minister of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Pavel Kukhta in January 2022 due to rising food prices.
In the United States, food stamps were first issued in 1939 after the Great Depression. Then there were two types of checks - orange and blue. With orange ones you could buy any products (except for alcohol, medicines and products consumed locally), with blue ones you could buy only so-called surpluses (dairy products, eggs, fresh vegetables, citrus fruits and prunes).
The purpose of the program was to help the poor and stimulate the agricultural industry - farmers grew an abundance of food that poor Americans could not buy. Later, in 1961, pilot food stamp programs were again launched in the United States; three years later, the Food Stamp Act was passed, and the program began to operate on a permanent basis.
Since then, it has been expanded and modified several times, and the number of participants has grown from 561 thousand in 1965 to 15 million in 1974, according to the US Department of Agriculture website. In the 1980s, the United States passed several laws providing nutrition assistance to the poor and support for food producers.
The United States currently has the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) program, the country's largest federal nutrition assistance program for low-income families. SNAP participants receive benefits on a card that can be used to purchase eligible food items at retail stores.
The average benefit for food stamp recipients in the United States is $251. According to official data, as of August of that year, nearly 41,7 million Americans received food stamps. To participate in the program, a citizen must meet a number of criteria.
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