Some 30,000 low-income households on food stamps in Rhode Island may now buy prepared restaurant meals at Subway fast food restaurants. The controversial plan aims to help people who qualify for food stamps but, lacking access to a regular kitchen, fail to make use of them.
The Rhode Island Food Access Project will provide healthy food options for the homeless, disabled and elderly who cannot cook for themselves or access store food where they live. Rhode Island is the first New England state to allow food stamp use at restaurants.
Beginning in the 1970s, the federal government gave states the option of allowing the elderly and disabled to spend their food stamp allocation in restaurants rather than solely at grocery stores. In 1990, the government also extended the same privilege to homeless people with no access to kitchens.
But the use of food stamps in restaurants did not catch on until states began converting the stamps to Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. So far, California, Arizona, Michigan, Florida and Kentucky allow EBT meal purchases at state-approved restaurants.
The Rhode Island pilot started in September at five Subway restaurants in Providence. The small size of this program allows for quick statistical gathering and can help to serve as a role model for new programs or for the expansion of current programs.
"A group of activists and myself went to work to get Subway to participate in this program," said Kathleen Gorman, director of the Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America. "Our State Department of Human Services was not a fan of the original program, but we got them to sign on."
Gorman said the program is small, and people living outside of Providence will have to travel to use their EBT cards for restaurant food. Nonetheless, it can be effective, she said.
"Half of these households live within greater Providence," Gorman said. "Even though the program is small, we have a good population base to work with."
Subway was selected because of its healthier food options. Subway's sandwiches offer reduced sodium and saturated fat, and consumers can personalize meal combinations to include yogurt, fresh vegetables, water, milk and diet soda.
"We want to provide healthier food options for people who cannot cook," Gorman said. "We want it to be more than Subway, in the future, and include other local diners and restaurants."
The development is drawing attention from across state lines. Pat Baker, senior advocate from the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said the Rhode Island food stamp meals program is controversial.
"Massachusetts officials are concerned about food cost," Baker said. "Officials have expressed concern over how much can be charged per meal."
Interviewed by the Pew Center on the States' Stateline news service Aaron Lavallee, of the USDA Office of Communications highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the food stamp restaurant meals program.
So far, the overall number of people participating in these programs is small. In other words, not everyone who has food stamps may choose to participate in the food stamp restaurant meals program.
Lavallee mentioned that the Rhode Island program is limited to 33,000 households. This represents only 20 percent of the nearly 165,000 SNAP (food stamp) program clients.
The USDA has clear food regulations, Lavallee said. Food stamps can be used only for foods such as bread, fruit, meat and dairy products Alcohol, cigarettes and household supplies do not qualify. One reason that the program has raised controversy is because it will allow SNAP clients, many of whom collect welfare, to buy fast food with their food stamps.
Jessica Bartholow, an advocate with the Western Center for Law and Poverty in Sacramento, Calif., told Stateline, a nonprofit news service, that, in her opinion, the food stamp restaurant meals program concerns are overblown, and a meal at a fast food restaurant is better than no meal. Many fast food restaurants such as Subway, and more recently, McDonald's, now offer healthy choices, she said.
The focus on healthy meal choices has caused controversy around the program to die down, Bartholow said. California's program is the nation's largest, and now some 53 counties in California that were not participating are reconsidering joining.