The Impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (snap, Formerly Food Stamp) Participation on Food Purchasing Practices, Diet Quality, and Food Insecurity Among Low-income Older Adults
The Impact of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (snap, Formerly Food Stamp) Participation on Food Purchasing Practices, Diet Quality, and Food Insecurity Among Low-income Older Adults

Author: Temitope Aiyejorun Walker

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13:

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SNAP provides food-purchasing assistance for low-income Americans to alleviate hunger and improve nutrition. However, little is known about how SNAP benefits affect the household's food purchasing practices (FPP), diet quality, and food insecurity especially among low-income older adults whose SNAP participation has been typically lower than younger age groups. The goal of this study is to better understand the changes in FPP, diet quality, and food insecurity with the receipt of SNAP benefits among SNAP-eligible non-participating older adults in Georgia. A longitudinal mixed-methods approach was employed based on a natural experiment following a sample of low-income older Georgians (n=10) as they navigated the SNAP application process. An established SNAP application assistance model was utilized to help the study participants. The impact of SNAP benefit receipt was assessed using in-person interviews, interviewer-administered surveys, grocery receipt collection, and grocery shopping trip observations at three time points: 1) before SNAP benefit receipt, 2) one month after SNAP benefit receipt, and 3) three months after SNAP benefit receipt. Both qualitative and quantitative exploratory data analyses were conducted. At baseline, SNAP-eligible participants reported higher financial constraints, poorer food insecurity, but comparable diet quality in comparison to the general older adult population. The impact of SNAP participation was evident in increasing shifts in household expenditure patterns for food purchased for consumption and improved food security at midpoint. There were notable changes in six FPP constructs and related distinct practices following SNAP benefit receipt such as changes in the types of food purchased and the strategies employed in their purchase. Overall diet quality was not significantly improved after three months of SNAP benefit receipt, but there were significant increases in the intake quality of select nutrients of concern including saturated fat and sodium. The findings of this study provide a more in-depth conceptual understanding of the underlying mechanism of how SNAP benefits affect food and nutrition-related decision-making processes and behavior changes. These findings also support the feasibility of key strategies used in targeting and recruiting low-income older adults for SNAP research and the value of SNAP application assistance in evaluating the impact of SNAP participation.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-04-23

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0309263476

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For many Americans who live at or below the poverty threshold, access to healthy foods at a reasonable price is a challenge that often places a strain on already limited resources and may compel them to make food choices that are contrary to current nutritional guidance. To help alleviate this problem, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers a number of nutrition assistance programs designed to improve access to healthy foods for low-income individuals and households. The largest of these programs is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called the Food Stamp Program, which today serves more than 46 million Americans with a program cost in excess of $75 billion annually. The goals of SNAP include raising the level of nutrition among low-income households and maintaining adequate levels of nutrition by increasing the food purchasing power of low-income families. In response to questions about whether there are different ways to define the adequacy of SNAP allotments consistent with the program goals of improving food security and access to a healthy diet, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a study to examine the feasibility of defining the adequacy of SNAP allotments, specifically: the feasibility of establishing an objective, evidence-based, science-driven definition of the adequacy of SNAP allotments consistent with the program goals of improving food security and access to a healthy diet, as well as other relevant dimensions of adequacy; and data and analyses needed to support an evidence-based assessment of the adequacy of SNAP allotments. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Examining the Evidence to Define Benefit Adequacy reviews the current evidence, including the peer-reviewed published literature and peer-reviewed government reports. Although not given equal weight with peer-reviewed publications, some non-peer-reviewed publications from nongovernmental organizations and stakeholder groups also were considered because they provided additional insight into the behavioral aspects of participation in nutrition assistance programs. In addition to its evidence review, the committee held a data gathering workshop that tapped a range of expertise relevant to its task.

Alleviating Food Insecurity with SNAP
Alleviating Food Insecurity with SNAP

Author: Elaine Morton

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13: 9781634848121

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called the Food Stamp Program, is designed primarily to increase the food purchasing power of eligible low-income households to help them buy a nutritionally adequate low-cost diet. This book describes the rules related to eligibility for SNAP benefits as well as the rules for benefits and their redemption. It also provides an overview of the problem of food insecurity in the United States and the important role that SNAP plays in addressing it.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) Participation Leads to Modest Changes in Diet Quality
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) Participation Leads to Modest Changes in Diet Quality

Author: United States Department of Agriculture

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-07-17

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9781515104100

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Recent research has shown that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) effectively reduces food insecurity. Questions remain, however, about the extent to which SNAP affects the quality of adult participants' diets. These questions have surfaced in the context of the increasing public costs of diet-related illnesses, such as diabetes, high blood cholesterol, and heart disease, and have led to discussions about restricting the use of SNAP benefits to purchase some food items. This report examines Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores for adults in low-income households that do and do not participate in SNAP. To disentangle the choice of whether to participate in SNAP from diet choices, this model uses a unique data set that matches State-level SNAP policy variables to individual-level data from four waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Two important kinds of results emerge: the effect of SNAP on the diet quality of those who choose to enroll, and a total comparison of SNAP participants and nonparticipants after SNAP's effects are taken into account. On the first, this report shows that SNAP participation results in a large increase in the likelihood of consuming whole fruit and a slightly lower consumption of dark green/orange vegetables. On the second, the report finds that SNAP participants have slightly lower HEI scores (both total and components) than nonparticipants, meaning that they have slightly lower diet quality. They do, however, consume less saturated fat and sodium than nonparticipants.

SNAP Matters
SNAP Matters

Author: Judith Bartfeld

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2015-11-25

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0804796874

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In 1963, President Kennedy proposed making permanent a small pilot project called the Food Stamp Program (FSP). By 2013, the program's fiftieth year, more than one in seven Americans received benefits at a cost of nearly $80 billion. Renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008, it currently faces sharp political pressure, but the social science research necessary to guide policy is still nascent. In SNAP Matters, Judith Bartfeld, Craig Gundersen, Timothy M. Smeeding, and James P. Ziliak bring together top scholars to begin asking and answering the questions that matter. For example, what are the antipoverty effects of SNAP? Does SNAP cause obesity? Or does it improve nutrition and health more broadly? To what extent does SNAP work in tandem with other programs, such as school breakfast and lunch? Overall, the volume concludes that SNAP is highly responsive to macroeconomic pressures and is one of the most effective antipoverty programs in the safety net, but the volume also encourages policymakers, students, and researchers to continue examining this major pillar of social assistance in America.

Does SNAP Decrease Food Insecurity?
Does SNAP Decrease Food Insecurity?

Author: Mark Nord

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 1437925103

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Self-selection by more food-needy households into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program) makes it difficult to observe positive effects of the program in survey data. This study investigates self-selection and ameliorative program effects by examining households¿ food security month by month for several months prior to initial receipt of SNAP benefits and for several months after joining the program. Food security is observed to deteriorate in the 6 months prior to beginning to receive SNAP benefits and to improve shortly after. The results clearly demonstrate the self-selection by households into SNAP at a time when they are more severely food insecure. Charts and tables.

A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty
A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-09-16

Total Pages: 619

ISBN-13: 0309483980

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The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

Local Food Systems; Concepts, Impacts, and Issues
Local Food Systems; Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

Author: Steve Martinez

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2010-11

Total Pages: 87

ISBN-13: 1437933629

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This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. Defining ¿local¿ based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers¿ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Charts and tables.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap)

Author: Congressional Research Service

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2014-10-20

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 9781503005686

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called the Food Stamp Program, is designed primarily to increase the food purchasing power of eligible low-income households to help them buy a nutritionally adequate low-cost diet. This report describes the rules related to eligibility for SNAP benefits as well as the rules for benefits and their redemption. SNAP is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS). SNAP is authorized by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. This law, formerly the Food Stamp Act of 1977, has since 1973 been reauthorized by the “farm bill,” omnibus legislation that also typically includes the authorization of other federal agricultural policies and programs. The program was most recently reauthorized by the 2014 farm bill (P.L. 113-79, enacted February 7, 2014). SNAP eligibility and benefits are calculated on a household basis. Eligibility is determined through a traditional or a categorical eligibility path. Under traditional eligibility, applicant households must meet gross income, net income, and asset tests. Specifically, household gross monthly income (all income as defined by SNAP law) must be at or below 130% of the federal poverty level, and household net (SNAP-specified deductions are subtracted) monthly income must be at 100% of the federal poverty level. The traditional asset rules are set at $2,000 per household (inflation adjusted). (Households that contain an elderly or disabled member have a higher asset limit and also do not have to meet the gross income test.) Under categorical eligibility, SNAP eligibility is automatically conveyed based upon the applicant's participation in other means-tested programs, namely Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or General Assistance (GA). Because TANF is a broad-purpose block grant, the state option to extend SNAP eligibility to applicants that receive a TANF-funded benefit allows states to offer program eligibility under rules that vary from those discussed in this paragraph, including an elimination of the asset test. If eligible for SNAP, an applicant household also undergoes a calculation of its monthly benefit amount (or allotment). This calculation utilizes the household's net income as well as the maximum allotment, a figure that equals the current value of the “Thrifty Food Plan” (TFP). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act temporarily increased this value; this increase ended after October 31, 2013. Benefits are issued on an EBT card, which operates with a declining balance like a debit card. Benefits are not cash, may not be accessed at an automatic teller machine, and are redeemable only for foods. Benefits may be redeemed for foods at licensed retailers, which may include a wide variety of retailers so long as retailers meet licensing requirements. This report focuses on SNAP eligibility and the form and function of benefits. For an overview of SNAP along with the other USDA-FNS programs, such as the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and National School Lunch Program (NSLP), see CRS Report R42353, Domestic Food Assistance: Summary of Programs. For issues related to SNAP and the new farm bill, see CRS Report R43332, SNAP and Related Nutrition Provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill (P.L. 113-79)