--- title: Food Stamps: Why Doubling the Value Helps Families Eat Better description: Getting healthy food from food stamps, how training service dogs can help returning veterans, desalination's costs and more. canonical: https://time.com/3860123/food-stamps-eat-better/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-15T16:01:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:57.627Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Doubling the Value of Food Stamps Helps Families Eat Better og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/3860123/food-stamps-eat-better/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Doubling the Value of Food Stamps Helps Families Eat Better twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Doubling the Value of Food Stamps Helps Families Eat Better by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 15, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 15, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Want to help poor families get healthy food? Double the value of food stamps.**](http://www.fastcoexist.com/3046178/michigan-farmers-markets-make-food-stamps-worth-twice-as-much-as-regular-money) By Jay Cassano in Fast Co.Exist **2\.** [**How training service dogs is giving veterans a reason to live.**](http://time.com/3859605/dogs-soldiers-ptsd-training/) By Chris Peak in Time **3\.** [**Can saltwater quench our growing thirst?**](http://ensia.com/features/can-saltwater-quench-our-growing-thirst/) By Brian Bienkowski in Ensia **4\.** [**High school sets up autistic kids to fail when they reach college. Here’s how to fix the problem.**](http://www.vox.com/2015/5/14/8594375/high-school-sets-up-autistic-kids-to-fail-in-college-heres-how-to-fix) By Noel Murray in Vox **5\.** [**The next big idea for ending poverty is thinking small.**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-lief/ending-poverty-the-next-b%5Fb%5F7264764.html) By Jacob Lief in Huffington Post  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3860123/food-stamps-eat-better/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3860123/food-stamps-eat-better/"},"headline":"Why Doubling the Value of Food Stamps Helps Families Eat Better","datePublished":"2015-05-15T16:01:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:57.627Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3860123/food-stamps-eat-better/","keywords":["Innovation","Veterans","Autism","Dogs","PTSD","Water","Drought"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3860123/food-stamps-eat-better/","name":"Why Doubling the Value of Food Stamps Helps Families Eat Better"}}]}] ```