OKPOLICY.ORG
“Obviously you did not bother to know the majority of the 604,000 people receiving food benefits in Oklahoma are people who are aging, people with disabilities (including disabled veterans) and the working poor who are raising children. The able-bodied adults who do not have children can only receive food benefits for three months if they are unemployed or must work at least 20 hours a week to receive help beyond that point. Last month, only 13,000 or 2.1% of the total recipients were in this category. Food benefits are a very small amount and are not intended to be a person’s entire food budget, thus the name ‘Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’. In fact, the average SNAP benefit is $4.27 per person per day or $1.42 per meal. The people who need this meager benefit are dependent upon it in order to keep themselves and their children from starving. Is that the kind of dependency you are suggesting we discourage?”
-The Oklahoma Department of Human Services, responding to a Facebook post by the Oklahoma Republican Party that compared SNAP food benefits to feeding animals in National Parks (Source)
