Government cheese

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Government cheese, or "Pasteurized Process American Cheese for Use in Domestic Programs" is processed cheese that was provided to welfare and food stamp recipients in the United States during the 1980s. (The style of cheese predated the era, having been used in military kitchens since the Second World War.) It was commonly associated with Reaganomics.

The cheese was bought and stored by the government's Commodity Credit Corporation. Direct distribution of dairy products began in 1982 under the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program of the Food and Nutrition Service. According to the government, it "slices and melts well."[1] The cheese was provided monthly, in unsliced block form, with generic product labeling and packaging.

Currently, the USDA provides a subsidized food program for specific classes of foods in the United States known as the Women, Infants and Children program, as well as other programs such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

Contents

[edit] Ingredients

Like all American processed cheese, it consists of a variety of cheese types blended together, and may be made of any of cheddar cheese, Colby cheese, cheese curd, or granular cheese[2]. The cheese was often from food surpluses stockpiled by the government as part of milk price supports. Butter was also stockpiled and then provided under the same program. Though the efficacy may be disputed by economists, politically the stockpiling was meant to bolster demand for milk, making dairy production more profitable. Government cheese was required to be made of Kosher products[3]. This cheese product is also distributed to victims of a natural disaster following a State of Emergency declaration.

[edit] In popular culture

  • In the United States the term has been used, sometimes derisively, to describe monetary government assistance given to those who are in need of financial help; for example, a person receiving such aid could be said to "live on Government Cheese."
  • A series of Saturday Night Live featured Chris Farley as Matt Foley, a fictional motivational speaker who was 35 years old, divorced, lived in a van down by the river, and claimed to "live on a steady diet of government cheese."

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ All Purpose
  2. ^ PCD5 Pasteurized Process American Cheese for use in Domestic Programs
  3. ^ PCD5 Pasteurized Process American Cheese for use in Domestic Programs

[edit] External links