SNAP/NAP Inequality: Colonial Hunger Policy

The exclusion of Puerto Rico from SNAP is one of the most tangible ways colonial status affects daily life — determining how much food the poorest Puerto Rican families can put on their tables.

The History: Puerto Rico participated in the federal Food Stamp Program from 1975 to 1982. In 1982, the Reagan administration replaced Puerto Rico's food stamps with a capped block grant called the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP/PAN) — ostensibly as a pilot program for block-granting social welfare.

The Inequality:
- SNAP (states): Individual entitlement — every eligible person receives benefits. Benefit levels adjust automatically for food prices and family size. No aggregate cap.
- NAP (Puerto Rico): Capped block grant — if more people become eligible (during a recession or disaster), the total funding does not increase. Benefits are approximately 40% lower per person than SNAP.
- A family of four in Mississippi (the poorest state) receives significantly more food assistance than the same family in Puerto Rico

The Numbers:
- Puerto Rico receives approximately $2 billion annually in NAP funding
- Under SNAP, Puerto Rico would receive an estimated $3.2-3.5 billion
- The gap: approximately $1-1.5 billion per year in food assistance that colonial status denies Puerto Rican families
- Over 1.3 million Puerto Ricans receive NAP — approximately 40% of the population

Impact:
- Higher rates of food insecurity than any U.S. state
- Nutritional deficiencies, particularly among children and elderly
- The block grant creates a race to the bottom: when food prices rise, benefits per person effectively decrease
- After Hurricane María, the fixed block grant could not expand to meet dramatically increased need — Congress had to pass emergency supplemental funding
- The COVID-19 pandemic similarly exposed NAP's inflexibility

Colonial Logic: The NAP block grant treats Puerto Rico's poorest residents as less deserving of food assistance than equivalent citizens in any state. The justification — always the Territorial Clause — means that where you live determines whether your children eat.

Puerto Rico's hunger is not natural — it is engineered by a colonial food policy that treats 3.2 million Americans as second-class citizens at the dinner table.