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Food Assistance Data & Collaborative Research Programs Charts - Costs and participation

USDA food and nutrition assistance programs, costs, and participation, fiscal year 2023
Program name Year begun Fiscal year 2023 cost (million U.S. dollars) Fiscal year 2023 participation
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) 1961 $112,840.8 42.1 million participants per month
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) 1972 $6,600.6 6.6 million participants per month
Child nutrition programs
National School Lunch Program (NLSP)* 1946 $17,177.2 4,632.6 million total lunches served
School Breakfast Program (SBP)* 1966 $5,217.0 2,368.2 million total breakfasts served
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) 1968 $3,926.2 1,696.7 million total meals served
Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) 1969 $546.6 136.1 million total meals and snacks
Special Milk Program (SMP) 1955 $5.1 19.1 million total half pints served
State Administrative and Other Costs for Child Nutrition Programs N/A $1,497.4 N/A
Other
Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT)** 2020 $13,687.8 N/A
Nutrition Assistance Program for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas (NAP) 1982*** $2,902.6 N/A
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) 1981 $1,315.3 N/A
Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) 1969 $359.5 695,858 participants per month
Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) 1976 $95.3 49,631 participants per month
Nutrition Services Incentive Program**** 1965 $2.0 N/A
Disaster Feeding N/A $0.4 N/A
Administrative expenses (not elsewhere classified) N/A $176.9 N/A
Total expenditures N/A $166,350.8 N/A

*Totals include expenditures on, and total meals served through, the NSLP or SBP’s Seamless Summer Option.
**Also includes negligible SNAP expenses not categorized elsewhere.
***American Samoa's Nutrition Assistance Program started in 1994.
****Administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
N/A = Not applicable.

Note: Fiscal year 2023 information is based on preliminary data from the September 2023 Program Information Report (Keydata) released by USDA, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in December 2023. Information on the year programs began (other than P-EBT) comes from the Annual Historical Review Fiscal Year 1997, USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, September 1999.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service based on data from USDA, FNS.

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