Food stamps entered the social safety net in 1939 when Mabel McFiggin of Rochester, New York, became the very first person to receive them.
Back then — and for decades to come — they were actual stamps. In the beginning, people on “relief” bought some stamps in order to receive others for free. They were different colors, and some could be exchanged for any food while others could be exchanged only for surplus food.
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The program has changed and evolved continuously over the years.
There’s no more color-coding, EBT cards replaced physical stamps and the program is now called SNAP, but one thing has remained relatively unchanged. When adjusted for inflation, the average monthly benefit paid to recipients has stayed surprisingly consistent throughout the generations. Because of the pandemic, benefits have been higher for the last two years than they’ve ever been before, but that’s an anomaly. For much of the preceding half-century, payments have mostly held steady. Here’s a look at the average food stamp benefit for every year in the program’s modern history.
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