A struggling single mom stands at the local grocery store checkout, benefits card in her hand.

The teenager working the cash register dutifully scans each item.

Milk … bread … eggs … fresh vegetables … ice cream. They all find their way past the beep of the scanner.

Next up: A hot rotisserie chicken that costs about seven bucks.

“Sorry, ma’am,” the teen says. “You can’t use the card for this.”

Stunned, the woman thinks a moment.

“Put it aside,” she says. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

In the blink of an eye she returns, with two $25-per-pound, fresh-cut rib-eye steaks in hand.

“Ring these up instead,” she says as the queued-up shoppers stand behind her.

“Ka-Ching!” the register sings.

With her groceries bagged, the woman heads home to feed her kids.

Shoppers, their heads wagging in disgust, watch in disbelief. Many of them — not on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — can’t themselves afford those pricey cuts of meat. They’re often outraged, and Internet forums fill with misinformation and blame.

But it’s not a struggling mom’s fault.

Instead, she’s the target of rules crafted in a time that’s long since passed.

Simply put, the same rules that allow folks to get help feeding their families won’t pay for hot, prepared foods sold in grocery stores.

And U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is out to make sure that changes.

Fetterman, a Democrat, is one of the sponsors of the “Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act,” which has received bipartisan support in the Senate. It already passed in the U.S. House, when lawmakers on Thursday approved it by a 384-35 vote as an amendment to the Farm Bill.

Under the current rules, SNAP beneficiaries can purchase the same chicken when it has been cooled down, but does not allow the purchase of hot prepared foods. The new proposal would amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 and modify the definition of food to include “hot rotisserie chicken.”

Current rules weren’t made to take a moral stance. They have nothing to do with nutritional guidelines. They’re just relics that come from a time when lawmakers assumed every household had the time, equipment and stability to cook three meals a day from scratch.

It made sense in the 1970s, when the program was designed around a specific vision of life. Most families had working stoves and refrigerators.

And many times, there was someone at home with the time to cook.

But those times have changed.

Recent figures show more than 9,500 participants in what we often call the food stamp program in Carbon County these days a number that’s increased steadily over the years.

More eligible households in recent years have seniors who aren’t as mobile as they once were, workers juggling multiple jobs and even people living in temporary housing and limited kitchen access.

For them, a hot rotisserie chicken isn’t a luxury — it’s a practical, affordable dinner that in many cases makes some great leftovers.

The new law wouldn’t increase eligibility or increase benefits.

It’s a commonsense admission that a hot chicken from a grocery store is still groceries.

At the same time, it’s a chance to take a step back and look at our willingness to modernize a program that millions rely on instead of just patching holes in a system that worked in a different century.

SNAP should be a way to help people buy food, but not food that fits a 1970s definition of home cooking or food that passes a temperature test.

Fetterman and the bill’s other sponsors aren’t chicken when it comes to sensible change.

They’re off to a good start by making some of the program’s rules make better sense in modern times.

And getting rid of ones that say a struggling family can buy dinner just as long as it’s cold.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com