By Tami Luhby, CNN
(CNN)The US Department of Agriculture is highlighting the difficulty food stamp recipients have in affording healthy meals as it seeks to revise the program’s funding formula.
Nearly 9 in 10 participants face barriers to providing themselves and their families with nutritious food, the agency said Wednesday. The most common hurdle, reported by 61% of enrollees, is cost. Smaller shares said they lack time to prepare food from scratch (30%), need transportation to the grocery store (19%) or don’t have storage for fresh or cooked food (14%).
As families ran out of benefits in the last 10 days of the month, they chose less nutritious food, which is less costly, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit on Wednesday.