“How much food stamp money are Coca-Cola, General Mills and Walmart getting? The government isn’t telling.

By Christopher D. Cook and Michele Simon

“Perhaps you’ve heard: At a time of record need for food assistance among America’s poor, the U.S. Senate is poised to cut roughly $4.5 billion from food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which 46 million Americans — one in seven of us — rely upon.

“While Congress is obsessed with saving money by cutting assistance to our poorest citizens, there’s been nary a peep about how major banks and food corporations profit from food stamps, and what that means for recipients and the rest of the taxpaying public.

“With minimal oversight or accountability, banks such as JPMorgan Chase administer SNAP in each state, reaping big contracts that reveal little about how they turn a profit off these public benefits. You’d think the austerity-minded Congress might want to know.

“Consider a few facts, revealed in an in-depth report released Tuesday by California-based Eat Drink Politics (of which Michele Simon is president and Christopher Cook a contributing researcher):

• JPMorgan Chase holds contracts in 24 states to administer SNAP benefits, indicating concentrated power and a lack of competition;

• In New York, a seven-year deal originally paid JPMorgan Chase $112 million for EBT services, and was recently amended to add $14.3 million–an increase of 13 percent.

“States are seeing unexpected increases in administrative costs, while banks and other private contractors are reaping significant windfalls from the economic downturn and increasing SNAP participation. Although a full national accounting of these contracts is not available from the US Department of Agriculture (which administers SNAP), we know that a handful of corporations fight doggedly for these deals, and they are not in the charity business.

“In California, a seven-year contract worth $69 million went to Affiliated Computer Services, a subsidiary of Xerox. In Florida, JPMorgan Chase enjoys a five-year contract worth about $83 million, or $16.7 million a year. Northrop Grumman, of military contracting fame, runs SNAP programs in Illinois and Montana. But how much of this money represents outright profits for these private contractors? And why can’t the public know this?” To read this AlterNet article in full, click here.