The first Food Stamp Program (FSP) (may 1, 1939 – may 1, 1943)

Description:

"The idea for the first Food Stamp Program (FSP) is credited to various people, most notably Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program's first Administrator Milo Perkins. The program operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange stamps equal to their normal food expenditures. For every $1 worth of orange stamps purchased, 50 cents worth of blue stamps were received. Orange stamps could be used to buy any food. Blue stamps could only be used to buy food determined by the Department to be surplus.
The first recipient was Mabel McFiggin of Rochester, New York on May 16, 1939. The first retailer to redeem the stamps was Joseph Mutolo, and the first retailer caught violating the program was Nick Salzano in October 1939. Over the course of nearly 4 years, the first FSP reached approximately 20 million people at one time or another in nearly half of the counties in the United States, peak participation was 4 million, at a total cost of $262 million. The program ended in the spring of 1943 "since the conditions that brought the program into being--unmarketable food surpluses and widespread unemployment--no longer existed."

"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."

( Milo Perkins )" 1

Source:
1. USDA. A Short History of SNAP. USDA Food and Nutrition Service. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap. Updated September 11, 2018. Accessed April 20, 2021.

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