LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? Yum! Brands wants to revise federal food stamp guidelines to include restaurants as another place where food stamp recipients can spend their benefits, USA Today reports.
With more Americans receiving government assistance, the number of businesses on the food stamp approval list jumped by a third from 2005 to 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Convenience stores and gasoline stations are among the newer vendors approved to receive food stamps.
Yum! Brands, which operates KFC, Long John Silver?s, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, now wants its locations, along with other restaurants, to be on the approved list for food stamps. Generally, federal regulations forbid food stamps from being used for prepared food. But a 1970s provision lets homeless, elderly and disabled people use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at restaurants, said Jean Daniel, USDA spokesperson.
A lot of money is at stake, with food stamps benefits at $64.7 billion in 2010. Currently four states ? Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan ? allow restaurants to accept food stamps.
?It makes perfect sense to expand a program that's working well in [those states], enabling the homeless, elderly and disabled to purchase prepared meals with SNAP benefits in a restaurant environment,? said Jonathan Blum, Yum! spokesperson.
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