The two basic family feeding programs are food stamps and commodity distribution. The current food stamp program provides the poor with spending power enough to purchase at the level of the Department of Agriculture's Economy Food Plan. The dollar equivalent of this plan is 112 dollars a month for a family of four. This amounts to an average per person Federal subsidy or bonus of $13.45 per month, or 14.7 cents per meal. From January 1970 (when the food plan was $106), to July 1972 (when the food plan went to $112), the consumer price index for food consumed at home went up at a rate of 300 percent greater than the rise in the allotment. The Department of Agriculture, however, in 1968 had described the Economy Food Plan "as not a reasonable measure of basic money needs for a good diet." The diet of the three million people who are enrolled in the commodity distribution program would not be entirely adequate even if all received their full allotment of slightly over 37 pounds of canned and boxed goods each month. They would obtain at least 100 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance of protein and six minerals and vitamins, but only 80 percent of needed calories. In fact, the program, however, distributes an average of 28.2 pounds of food each month, or 74 percent of the promised items by weight. (Author/JM)