thumb|snap logo the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap), "nutrition assistance program home page", u.s. department of agriculture (official website), march 3, 2011 (last revised). accessed march 4, 2011. formerly known as the food stamp program, provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people living in the u.s. it is a federal aid program, administered by the u.s. department of agriculture, under the food and nutrition service (fns), though benefits are distributed by each u.s. state's division of social services or children and family services. snap benefits cost $76.4 billion in fiscal year 2013 and supplied roughly 47.6 million americans with an average of $133.08 per month in food assistance. it is the largest nutrition program of the fifteen administered by fns and is a critical component of the federal social safety net for low-income americans. the amount of snap food stamps a household gets depends on the household's size, income, and expenses. for most of its history, the program used paper-denominated "stamps" or coupons â worth us$1 (brown), $5 (blue), and $10 (green) â bound into booklets of various denominations, to be torn out individually and used in single-use exchange. because of their intrinsic value of 1:1 with actual money, the coupons were printed by the us bureau of engraving and printing. their rectangular shape resembled a us dollar bill (although about 1/2 the size), including intaglio printing on high-quality paper with watermarks. in the late 1990s, the food stamp program was revamped, with some states phasing out actual stamps in favor of a specialized debit card system known as electronic benefit transfer (ebt), provided by private contractors. ebt has been implemented in all states since june 2004. each month, snap food stamp benefits are directly deposited into the household's ebt card account. households may use ebt to pay for food at supermarkets, convenience stores, and other food retailers, including certain farmers' markets.{{cite web|title=supplemental nutrition assistance program|url=http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap|publisher=usda|a
Federal_assistance_in_the_United_States Food_security_in_the_United_States Great_Society_programs Supplemental_Nutrition_Assistance_Program United_States_Department_of_Agriculture_programs