New Deal Accomplishment: 20 million assisted through the "Food Stamp Plan"


Above: "Hunger," an artwork by Richard V. Correll (1904-1990), created while he was in the WPA, between 1935 and 1943. Image from the Art Institute of Chicago.


Above: The description for this 1939 photograph reads, "First printing of food stamps. Washington, D.C., April 20. Food stamps, the latest in the administration's plans to reduce the farm surplus, came off the presses today at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Of [orange] and blue, the stamps will be issued to persons on relief who will be able to cash each one dollar stamp for food worth a dollar and fifty cents. Imogene Stanhope, printer's assistant at the Bureau, is pictured pulling the first batch off the press." Photo from the Library of Congress.


Above: A pair of original 1939 food stamps, from the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation. A person qualifying for food assistance would buy orange stamps at face value and then receive half as much more in blue stamps. The orange stamps could be used to purchase normal food items, as well as some household goods, and the blue stamps could be used to purchase foods that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture had designated as surplus (essentially, food that had been produced in too much quantity for the regular marketplace to handle). So, if you purchased $10 worth of orange stamps, you would--thanks to the bonus blue stamps--be able to purchase $15 worth of food altogether. Photo by Brent McKee.


Above: This is part of a larger newspaper advertisement in the Morning Call-Chronicle (Allentown, Pennsylvania), November 5, 1939, p. 11. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

We the People, feeding We the People

The genesis of America's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was the New Deal's "Food Stamp Plan," which existed between 1939 and 1943. The basic idea was to get surplus food to those who could not afford to buy very much at their local grocery stores. It was a win-win-win situation--helping farmers, lower-income folks, and grocers--with minimal impact on regular food markets.

During its four-year run, the Food Stamp Plan helped feed about 20 million people ("A Short History of SNAP," Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, accessed October 26, 2025). America's growing involvement in World War II led to a decrease in food surplus and an increase in jobs, and thus a decision to end the Food Stamp Plan. The general idea of food stamps returned in 1961 and has been with us ever since, eventually renamed "SNAP."

Just like we see today, there were criticisms of government-funded food assistance. For example, one newspaper editorial argued that "the people who ask for and accept the free stamps will no longer be free. They will be dependent upon government and perhaps on local political bosses" ("Free Food Stamps," Council Bluffs Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa), August 1, 1939, p. 4). However, if American government is supposed to be of, by, and for the people--"We the People"--then, is being dependent upon government (i.e., ourselves) such a bad thing?... at least until a bad labor market improves, or our education and job training lands us a better job?

"Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."

--FDR, "Acceptance Speech for the Renomination for the Presidency, Philadelphia, Pa.
June 27, 1936," American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara, accessed October 26, 2025.

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