AMERICA’S HARVEST BOX
Last month, Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 was delivered to Congress. Among many other proposals aimed at decreasing spending on domestic programs, Trump proposed cutting funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as “food stamps”. Currently, SNAP recipients are low-income Americans who receive a card pre-loaded with credits each month, which they can use to buy any food they want at participating retailers. The White House proposes to replace half the amount of credit given to about 80% of all SNAP recipients with a pre-made box delivered directly to households: the “America’s Harvest Box”. This would include powdered milk, ready-to-eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit and vegetables but no fresh fruits or vegetables. The White House stated that this measure would reduce the overall cost of the SNAP program by $129 billion over the next 10 years, but the proposal has been fiercely criticised. Critics said that this measure would limit the choices of low-income families, not taking into account their various backgrounds, religious restrictions, food allergies… They also argued that this proposal would be too difficult to implement at a logistical level and would end up costing more money than the current system. to deliver ici, présenter (aussi, livrer) / among parmi / to be aimed at viser à / to decrease diminuer, faire baisser, réduire / spending dépenses / domestic ici, national / to cut, cut, cut ici, réduire / funding financement / currently actuellement / low-income à faible revenu / to load charger; ici, ajouter (du crédit) / retailer détaillant, magasin / to replace remplacer / amount of credit somme allouée / about environ / household foyer, ménage / powdered en poudre / peanut (de) cacahuète / bean haricot / canned en conserve / to state affirmer / overall global / by ici, de / billion milliard / over ici, au cours de / fiercely farouchement / critic détracteur, opposant / to take, took, taken into account prendre en compte / background origines; aussi, milieu socioculturel / to argue soutenir (fig.) / to implement mettre en oeuvre.