From Farm to Table

he federal government's commitment to improving the nutrition of the American people can be traced to the 1863 Organic Act. But the federal government did not provide food to the poor until the New Deal programs during the Great Depression attempted to improve the lot of farmers and their families and alleviate near-starvation in the cities. A 1935 law allowed the Agriculture Department to use customs duties to operate food assistance programs and purchase surplus farm commodities to donate to those programs.

Between 1939 and 1943, the government operated the first food stamp program. "We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and undernourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other," wrote Milo Perkins, the first administrator of the food stamp program. "We set out to find a practical way to build a bridge across the chasm."

During this four-year period, more than 20 million people who were on government "relief" programs at one time or another bought food stamps to buy surplus commodities at lower prices. Peak participation reached 4 million people in half the nation's counties, but the program was closed down when World War II brought an end to both food surpluses and widespread unemployment.

While the war reduced the need for food stamps, it revealed the widespread health problems related to malnutrition and hunger. Some military draftees had been so malnourished that they were unfit for military service. In 1946, Congress permanently authorized the school lunch program with unlimited appropriations to make sure every state provided school lunches to all children, and free or reduced price lunches to children who could not afford the full cost.

Postwar agricultural surpluses and increased recognition of poverty brought continuous calls from some members of Congress for a food stamp program, and in 1959, Congress authorized the Eisenhower administration to begin a pilot project. Eisenhower never used the authority, but President Kennedy, fulfilling a campaign promise made in West Virginia, initiated a pilot program. Legislation passed in 1964 made the food stamp program permanent. Conservatives initially opposed the program, and Bob Dole, then a Kansas congressman, voted against the measure when it came up in the House Agriculture Committee. But farm groups came to recognize that the food stamp program increased crop purchases and that incorporating amendments to the program in farm bills would give urban and suburban legislators a reason to continue voting for farm subsidies, even though the number of farmers was dwindling. Dole later led a bipartisan farm-to-table coalition on Capitol Hill that promoted both farm programs and food stamps.

In the mid-1960s, Congress became aware of the special nutrition needs of children. In 1966, the Child Nutrition Act authorized free milk and school breakfasts for poor children. In 1972, Congress created the special supplemental food program for women, infants and children (WIC), which provides infant formula to nearly half of the babies born in the United States.