On September 11, 1959, Congress authorized a discretionary two-year program to distribute surplus food to impoverished Americans. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Sept. 21, but never implemented it. President Kennedy’s first executive order two years later initiated a federally subsidized pilot food stamp system to be run by USDA. The Food Stamp Act of 1964, an integral cog in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty,” expanded the program to some 350,000 individuals in 40 counties and three cities at an overall cost of $75 million. The act was part of a larger appropriation that raised price supports for cotton and wheat. Rural members voted for the program; in return, urban members backed farm subsidies. That logrolling concept, although criticized by some lawmakers, survived until this year when House Republicans passed a farm bill without SNAP.
Source: Politico, 9/11/13, SNAP History
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