If a person is poor enough to qualify for food stamps, is it reasonable to expect them to have enough land and resources (fertilizer, etc.) to grow enough food for a family, while also earning a living? Should that be the only option?
Finally, of the group of people who do not have reliable access to cars, the poor are a significant portion. "Just jump in your car and drive down the road" is not an option for millions of Americans.
But yes, if you are relatively well-off, there's no such thing as a food desert. If you have a few tens of acres of land, a tractor, and car, even being 50 or 100 miles from a store is not a problem. SNAP isn't for those people.
Maybe in your state, but this is definitely not universal in America.
That assumes: having a car, and having some arable land + time on hand to grow and care for crops.
Those are big assumptions, you need money to have a car and land, poor people lack... Money.
I suspect this is targeted more at urban areas - in NYC there are a ton of neighborhoods where the local grocery store options are limited to bodegas, most of which carry primarily or entirely processed and pre-packaged foods. Nothing wrong with that inherently, but lack of access to fresh produce and meats makes it more difficult for families to eat healthy.
Many of those neighborhoods are gentrifying, or near neighborhoods that are, and the higher income folks that move in can afford to have someone instacart or uber eats better quality groceries from a few neighborhoods over, an option not available to people on EBT.
For Uber it makes sense because the physical distance is likely not substantial, which allows the economics to work for the drivers, particularly if they can do it on an e-bike or scooter. In rural areas I would be concerned that the round-trip drive times are less appealing - I've already seen a lot of discussion on the dasher subreddit about how rural restaurant delivery is less preferable because of distance and a perception that tipping is not good relative to the effort required.
When I visit Cambridge in MA the only real options seem to be a few Whole Foods and a couple Trader Joe’s scattered around and some specialty markets. (May be some other options here and there.)
Not true. Unless you live in a truly rural town with less than 5000 people, you are counted as "urban" and any more than 1 mile from a grocery store is a food dessert.
I am 5 minutes from a grocery store and technically in a food dessert. Its silly.