On August 31, the Food Stamp Act turns 60 years old. This landmark legislation authorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a critical public benefits program that helps more than 41 million Americans stave off hunger and severe poverty every year.
Ample research demonstrates that access to SNAP reduces poverty, improves food security, and improves health outcomes for participating families. However, rampant agency dysfunction, inadequate agency staffing and technology, long wait times, clerical errors, and lack of accommodations for disabilities or language services leaves millions of vulnerable people unable to access these benefits despite being legally eligible.
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) has one of the ONLY programs in the nation dedicated to expanding access to SNAP benefits. We’ve brought nearly twenty SNAP litigation cases over the past three decades, and with food insecurity rising sharply in recent years, our work is more critical than ever.
In Alaska, our efforts made the State issue approximately $6.6 million in SNAP benefits to needy families. In Missouri, we won a major decision in which the Court ruled the State to be violating laws governing SNAP and the ADA. In Georgia, we set up a relief line for Georgians to get the state back on track when their SNAP program took a nosedive in timely processing. And in New York City, we filed a contempt motion against the City for their failure to provide expedited SNAP to low-income families in violation of a 2005 court order, and won a court-approved Corrective Action Plan.
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice advances racial and economic justice through ground-breaking impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. We have provided legal representation and support since 1965.
