<P> The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, provides food - purchasing assistance for low - and no - income people living in the United States . It is a federal aid program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), though benefits are distributed by each U.S. state's Division of Social Services or Children and Family Services . </P> <P> SNAP benefits cost $70.9 billion in fiscal year 2016 and supplied roughly 44.2 million Americans with an average of $125.51 for each person per month in food assistance . Beneficiaries and costs increased sharply with the Great Recession, peaked in 2013 and have declined through 2016 as the economy recovered . It is the largest nutrition program of the fifteen administered by FNS and is a component of the federal social safety net for low - income Americans . </P> <P> The amount of SNAP benefits received by a household depends on the household's size, income, and expenses . For most of its history, the program used paper - denominated "stamps" or coupons--worth US $1 (brown), $5 (blue), and $10 (green)--bound into booklets of various denominations, to be torn out individually and used in single - use exchange . Because of their 1: 1 value ratio with actual currency, the coupons were printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing . Their rectangular shape resembled a U.S. dollar bill (although about one - half the size), including intaglio printing on high - quality paper with watermarks . In the late 1990s, the Food Stamp Program was revamped, with some states phasing out actual stamps in favor of a specialized debit card system known as Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), provided by private contractors . EBT has been implemented in all states since June 2004 . Each month, SNAP food stamp benefits are directly deposited into the household's EBT card account . Households may use EBT to pay for food at supermarkets, convenience stores, and other food retailers, including certain farmers' markets . </P> <P> The idea for the first FSP has been credited to various people, most notably U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program's first administrator, Milo Perkins . Of the program, Perkins said, "We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and under - nourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other . We set out to find a practical way to build a bridge across that chasm ." The program operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange stamps equal to their normal food expenditures; for every US $1 worth of orange stamps purchased, fifty cents' worth of blue stamps were received . Orange stamps could be used to buy any food; blue stamps could be used only to buy food determined by the Department to be surplus . </P>

When did food stamps change to a card