food stamps

America's poor, who are more likely to be plagued with poor nutrition and stricken with obesity than higher income groups, statistics show, are also more likely to get their meals from fast food restaurants. Where else can you get a days' worth of calories for $5, no preparation required? And this...

Getting even a tentative handle on the multi-trillion dollar federal budget is no easy matter. Still, as the debate surrounding U.S. spending, taxes and the looming debt ceiling continues, it's worth asking: Exactly how does America spend all that cash, and what do the choices being debated really mean?

The Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as "lack of access to enough food to fully meet basic needs at all times due to lack of financial resources." Record food stamp enrollment over the last two years suggests that food insecurity has been getting worse.

Banning soda for food stamp users is a good idea. And I write as someone who has not once, but twice, been on food stamps myself. I write about food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), enough to know the usual rhetorical arguments used by the various concerned groups....

In tough economic times, reminiscing about the good ol' days seems to be on everyone's minds. And companies are listening. Many businesses are bringing back some of the products and services that served us well in the past -- and might just make us forget our problems for awhile. So just what's...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought permission from the federal government to bar New York City's 1.7 million food stamp recipients from using them to buy sugary drinks such as sodas. Bloomberg, a staunch advocate of anti-obesity measures, sent the request to the United States Department of...

"More food stamps? Or more paychecks?" Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich suggests that's how the GOP should couch the national policy debate before the midterm elections. But will it work?

A record one in six Americans is on Medicaid, the government's health program for the poor. And Medicaid is just one of several government anti-poverty programs that have seen large increases in caseloads -- and costs.

The diagnosis for many children in the U.S. is a doozy: obesity and poverty at once. The prognosis is dim, as many children don't even recognize a potato in its skin, and can't identify a kiwi fruit. The prescription is novel: go to the farmer's market, and here, take this coupon. The problem many...

As the economy continues to stumble, homelessness has skyrocketed, leaving many states grappling with an expensive and delicate issue -- what to do with the growing population of people finding refuge in shelters, parks and the streets. Hawaii, where a recent census showed that the homeless...