SNAP Recipients Now Required To Prove Need By Eating All Their Groceries On Spot

WASHINGTON—In an effort to better verify participants’ eligibility, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits would now be required to eat all of their groceries on the spot. “Our mission has always been to help families in need, but if they’re not immediately scarfing down every morsel of food we give them, including a part of the packaging, how can we know they really need it?” said Marie Rubin, a spokesperson for the federal program, who slammed a gallon jug of whole milk onto the podium before her, along with three loaves of bread and a 55-ounce can of baked beans. “Hungry? Prove it. It will be the responsibility of the cashier to make sure not a single crumb is left behind at checkout. Once you’re done, you’re done for the month. We’ve got to move on and feed the rest of the people. If the eggs are raw, that’s not our problem.” At press time, Rubin added that SNAP recipients would become ineligible if they weren’t able to keep their groceries down for at least five minutes.