In September 1977, a bipartisan congressional effort under President Jimmy Carter completely repealed the food stamp purchasing requirement in the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977. The purchasing requirement, which had been a controversial component of food stamps since their inception, disproportionally impacted Black families, who were more likely to live in poverty and be unable to afford food stamp coupons. Earlier that year, hundreds of migrant workers in Florida had marched in protest over their inability to obtain food stamps due to the purchasing requirement after losing their jobs when a freeze destroyed Florida’s citrus crops. Until the repeal, many people with very low income, like the protesters, did not have the resources to buy food stamp coupons.
Still, not all members of Congress supported eliminating the food stamp purchasing requirement. One Florida congressman, Representative Richard Kelly from Florida’s 5th congressional district, opposed making food stamps free of charge, arguing that people with low income should learn to budget their income “just like a rat can push a button to get a gate to open.” (Four years later, Rep. Kelly was convicted of taking bribes as part of the FBI’s Abscam sting operation and spent over a year in prison.)
Eliminating the requirement that households buy coupons had an almost immediate impact on the ability of people with the lowest income to access the Food Stamp Program, with Orange County estimating that, up until then, at least 500 people in the Orlando area had been eligible for food stamps yet were unable to afford coupons. Statewide, repeal of the purchasing requirement, along with other improvements in the 1977 act, was expected to allow 20 percent more Floridians, many among the lowest income households in the state, to finally be able to qualify for the program.
Nationwide, participation in the Food Stamp Program increased by 1.5 million people in the first month after Congress did away with the purchasing requirement. In Florida, in the year before Congress eliminated the requirement, as many as 720,000 Floridians (or 48 percent) who were eligible for food stamps were not participating in the program. However, in the four years following repeal of the mandate, the number of Floridians participating in the program jumped by roughly 31 percent, from 728,000 people in 1977 to 957,000 in 1981.
The 1977 act also eliminated the requirement that determined eligibility for food stamps based on projected income rather than current income, a change that benefited Florida farm workers with unpredictable income.
Image Source: The Miami Herald
Image Description: Newspaper image of migrants lining up to receive food stamps in Homestead, Florida