Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico

Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico
Agency overview
FormedAugust 13, 1981; 43 years ago (1981-08-13)
Preceding agency
Jurisdictionexecutive branch
HeadquartersSan Juan, Puerto Rico
Parent departmentU.S. Department of Agriculture
Puerto Rico Department of Family Affairs
Parent agencyAdministration for the Socioeconomic Development of the Family
Key documents
Websiteservicios.adsef.pr.gov/views/programa/programaAsistenciaNutricional.aspx
Part of a series on the
Executive branch of the
government of Puerto Rico
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Nutrition Assistance for Puerto Rico (NAP) —Spanish: Programa de Asistencia Nutricional (PAN) popularly known in Puerto Rico as Cupones (English: Food Stamps)— is a federal assistance nutritional program provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) solely to Puerto Rico. In 2021, over $2 billion USD was appropriated as a block grant for NAP to assist over 1 million impoverished residents of Puerto Rico.[1][2] It is based on, though not part of, the USDA's national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which in 2018 provided $64 billion in nutritional assistance to 42 million people in the 50 U.S. states, D.C., Guam and the US Virgin Islands.[3][4]

Since its inception in 1982, the program has been providing low-income families, living in Puerto Rico, with cash for food purchases.[5] It is a collaborative effort between the USDA and the island's government, where the former provides annual federal appropriations for the Puerto Rican government to distribute individually among eligible participants. Although the methods of providing such benefits have changed over the years, the program's basic objective of helping low-income families meet their nutritional needs has remained constant.

It has received criticism especially when federal reviews and assessments revealed deficiencies in its operations and management,[6] requiring the implementation of various changes, including increased scrutiny. It has also attracted both criticism and advocacy from Puerto Rico and the United States over its effectiveness in helping poor families, and its impact on Puerto Rico's social classes and economy.[7]

  1. ^ OMB NAP assessment detail Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine , Question 1.2.
  2. ^ OMB NAP assessment detail Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine Statistics Table Introduction.
  3. ^ "GAO-19-167" (PDF). gao.gov. U.S. Government Accountability Office. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  4. ^ OMB NAP assessment detail Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine Questions 1.3, 2.6, and 4.4.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference FANRR-19-3_286.6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Expectmore_summary was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference welfare island was invoked but never defined (see the help page).