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Hey, history lovers.

I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Earlier this year, President Trump proposed overhauling SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. The president suggested giving

the vast majority of eligible recipients about half of their benefits. Recipients would receive

a container of non-perishable food items such as milk, juice, grains, pasta, canned meat, fruits, and vegetables.

Trump argued that this new form of food stamps would save the government money,

though critics said it took away the recipient's ability to choose what they eat.

The country's food assistance program has long been complicated and divisive.

The name itself was changed from food stamps to snap because the former had such a negative connotation.

As for the origins of the program, it dates back two decades before food stamps were even a thing, born from a

complicated paradox. Too much food.

Let's go back to World War I, which devastated much of civilization.

This was especially true of European agriculture, which struggled to provide food on the

continent during the war.

Meanwhile, American farmers were encouraged to grow as much as possible, not just to feed

their own soldiers, but also a growing number of hungry

Europeans.

Then, in 1918, the war ended. Demand for food across the Atlantic slowly declined.

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