Anti-hunger groups are lobbying lawmakers and President-elect Barack Obama ’s transition team to include $24 billion over two years in the economic stimulus bill to boost food stamp benefits.

Obama has said for months that food stamp funding should be part of new economic legislation. Key farm belt lawmakers, including Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, and Senate Agriculture Appropriations Chairman Herb Kohl , D-Wis., have pledged to ensure that funds for nutrition initiatives are part of an economic recovery package.

But so far neither lawmakers nor the Obama team has put a price tag on the nutrition portion of the stimulus or spelled out how the money might be spent. Republican aides in both chambers declined to comment before seeing a detailed plan on whether GOP lawmakers would support including food assistance in the stimulus.

“If there is a stimulus, I can assure you that a big part of that will be food stamps,” Harkin said last month. “We’ll have the votes.”

Nutrition advocates argue that handing money to Americans struggling to put food on their tables not only is charitable, but also is sound economics. People who are hungry are going to immediately spend the money they receive on food, pumping it into the economy, advocates say.