From StockNews.com: There are over 43 million Americans on food stamps, and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) wants to become the place where they go grocery shopping.

The company, along with six others, is participating in a new government pilot program from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that’s intent on bringing fresh groceries to poverty-stricken Americans that don’t have access to grocery stores in their area:

The two-year program by the U.S. Department of Agriculture could help to alleviate what are known as food deserts, areas where residents have little access to fresh food and groceries, while also relieving some of the stigma of using food aid.

This could be a breakthrough of sorts for Amazon, which to this point has lost out to Walmart in terms of low-income grocery shopping. If the poor can simply log onto Amazon and order groceries using food stamps, that gap would likely narrow very quickly. It’s worth noting that Walmart is the nation’s largest seller of groceries, so the opportunity is huge.

According to the USDA, the SNAP program distributes $66 billion in food aid to 43 million Americans per year.

Amazon.com, Inc. shares were trading at $808.94 per share on Tuesday afternoon, down $8.20 (-1.00%). Year-to-date, AMZN has gained 7.88%, versus a 1.36% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

AMZN currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #3 of 44 stocks in the Internet category.

This article is brought to you courtesy of StockNews.com.

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