Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Lafayette’s Food Finders Food Bank has been ramping up its distribution across west central Indiana, as rising unemployment driven by the COVID-19 pandemic forces families to food pantries. But families will need other solutions for their food needs, now and in the future.  

For the first time in 2018, both Lafayette and West Lafayette accepted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits – commonly known as food stamps – at their farmer’s markets. SNAP can take time to catch on at a market, especially in year one, so more work still lies ahead to make both programs a success.

At Lafayette’s pre-Thanksgiving market, Daniel Fagerstrom of Fairstream Farms is listing all the different ways to prepare a Jerusalem artichoke.

“You can also grate them onto salads, if you want to use them fresh…so that’s another way to use them,” Fagerstrom says. “You can pan-fry them. Boil them like a potato, add a little butter or salt-and-pepper.”

Following reporting by WBAA News on delays in accepting food stamps at the Lafayette and West Lafayette farmer’s markets, those programs have begun to ramp up.

The Lafayette Farmer’s Market has begun accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. A month into the process, twelve vendors have agreed to opt in to accept the vouchers. But the work to get the program up and running has only just begun.

A bill before the Indiana House Committee on Family, Children and Human Affairs would make more people eligible for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

A Senate committee on Monday approved a bill that would extend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — also known as SNAP or food stamps — to former offenders convicted of certain drug-related offenses.

A federal law prohibits former criminals convicted of, for example, trafficking controlled substances, from receiving food stamp benefits. States can choose to do away with the federal ban with a positive legislative vote.