"During America's hardest economic times, canned goods were a lifeline. From 1929, the start of the Great Depression, to 1941, when the United States entered World War II, people ate nearly 50 percent more canned fruit, by weight, compared with the preceding 13 years. Some used new community canning centers to safely preserve food for the long term, or depended on the U.S. government's first food-stamp programs to buy "surplus goods," including canned beef, mutton, goat, and peas."
"Millions of Americans are now bracing for the possibility that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will run out on November 1-tomorrow. The ongoing government shutdown has frozen funding for SNAP, and as anxiety about hunger mounts, some state agencies have advised SNAP beneficiaries to stock up on canned goods such as beans, soup, fruit, and tuna. Only, those foods aren't so reliably affordable as they once were, in part because of restrictions on the materials that go into the cans themselves."
Canned goods historically provided affordable, long-lasting nutrition, with consumption of canned fruit rising nearly 50 percent between 1929 and 1941. Community canning centers and early food-stamp programs enabled households to preserve and purchase surplus canned meats and vegetables. Current government shutdown funding freezes threaten SNAP benefits for roughly 42 million recipients and may force benefit lapses as early as November 1. State agencies are advising beneficiaries to stock up on canned staples, but rising prices and restrictions on can materials are reducing affordability. Political disputes over emergency SNAP reserves have produced lawsuits and public blame between federal and state actors.
Read at The Atlantic
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