Abstract
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) serves as the primary tool to alleviate food insecurity in the United States. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated in numerous studies, but the majority of SNAP recipients are still food insecure. One factor behind this is the difference in food prices across the country—SNAP benefits are not adjusted to reflect these differences. Using information from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap (MMG) project, we compare the cost of a meal by county based on the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP)—which is used to set the maximum SNAP benefit—with the cost of the average meal for low-income food-secure households. We find that the cost of the latter meal is higher than the TFP meal for over 99 percent of the counties. We next consider the reduction in food insecurity if, by county, the maximum SNAP benefit level was set to the cost of the average meal for low-income food-secure households. We find that if this approach were implemented, there would be a decline of 50.9 percent in food insecurity among SNAP recipients at a cost of $23 billion.
Highlights
Food insecurity, “the uncertainty of having, or [being] unable to acquire, enough food due to insufficient money or other resources” (Coleman-Jensen et al 2019), has become a leading indicator of economic well-being in the United States for two central reasons
The important role Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) plays in reducing food insecurity for tens of millions of Americans has been demonstrated in multiple studies
One straightforward approach to reducing food insecurity among those living in high-price areas is to increase SNAP benefits
Summary
“the uncertainty of having, or [being] unable to acquire, enough food due to insufficient money or other resources” (Coleman-Jensen et al 2019), has become a leading indicator of economic well-being in the United States for two central reasons. If every county in the U.S saw an increase in SNAP benefits such that the maximum SNAP benefit was set to the average food expenditures by low-income food-secure households (i.e., the SNAP meal gap was closed), there would be a decline of 50.9 percent in the food insecurity rate among SNAP participants. This amounts to an increase of $23 billion, slightly over 30 percent in total SNAP expenditures
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