SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS DECEMBER, 1979 FOOD STAMP PROGRAM EFFECTS ON AVAILABILITY OF FOOD NUTRIENTS FOR LOW INCOME FAMILIES IN THE SOUTHERN REGION OF THE UNITED STATES

The food stamp program, as enacted into law N in 1964, was intended to improve the diet of (2). Piqi = M. low income households, but whether the pro- i=1 gram resulted in a nutritional improvement re- The relationship of U, Pi, qi and M in the mains a controversial question. Several studies theory of consumer behavior can be written in have evaluated the nutritional impact of the the form of a classical programming problem food stamp program on participant where the constraints are of the equality type. households. In general, the study findings do not conclusively resolve the question of nutri- Maximize U = f (qi, q2,... qN) tional improvement for participant families. Studies of California families showed some subject to nutritional improvements among food stamp N recipients in comparison with nonrecipients [7, Piq = M. 8]. A study in Pennsylvania showed no nutri- i1= tional improvements, except in temporary peri- Tintner [13] added a parameter ak to the util