It’s a standard sign at many convenience and grocery stores around the country, usually posted near the prepared food line and aimed at customers paying by Electronic Benefits Transfer, the debit card for food stamps. Since the passage of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, people on food stamps have been banned from using their benefits to buy hot food, except in an extremely narrow set of circumstances. The logic, as explained by the Department of Agriculture, is that food stamps are intended to help provide food for home consumption, not food generally. In the case of a natural disaster or other emergency, USDA can temporarily approve hot food benefits for people without access to a kitchen. When SNAP food restrictions come up in policy debates now, it’s typically in regards to making them stricter, not more lenient.

Source: Washington Post June 23, 2017 17:23 UTC