Abstract
This research brief reports preliminary findings related to the SNAP Challenge (SC), an anti-hunger initiative in which participants purchase their household groceries using the average food stamp budget benefit for one week. By simulating a SNAP budget, SC participants encounter food insecurity directly, recognizing how the food they are able to consume connects to income, nutrition needs, and other factors that contribute to quality of life, all of which can be considered capabilities of food security. Linking the experience of food hardship to conditions of poverty can address not only immediate food needs but also the interconnected material opportunities and disparities that constitute food (in)security. In this way, I suggest, a capability approach to food security can better align anti-hunger advocacy and food system policy. This initial study supports ongoing research related to anti-hunger advocacy communication, food security discourse, and capability-based approaches to food system reform. See the press release for this article.
Highlights
Threats of cuts to federal nutrition programs such as SNAP1 foment debates about the function of the social safety net and the role of public policy in household food security
The current study explores how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Challenge (SC) connects the experience of food hardship to what may be considered capabilities that produce or inhibit the achievement of food security (Sen, 1999, 2003)
This research brief reports on the SNAP Challenge (SC), an anti-hunger advocacy initiative aimed at providing “a new perspective and greater understanding” of foodsecurity (FRAC, 2016, p. 1)
Summary
Threats of cuts to federal nutrition programs such as SNAP1 foment debates about the function of the social safety net and the role of public policy in household food security. The SNAP Challenge has gained some attention in academic literatures (Robb, 2016; Schoettler et al, 2015) emphasizing how the experience of hunger can raise awareness of food hardship This preliminary study extends this area scholarship through consideration of the material opportunities and disparities that constitute food (in)security as revealed through the SC. SC and Capabilities of Food Security Challenge participants frequently described their experience completing the SC as “eye opening,” using economic and physiological impacts to articulate deviations from their typical eating and shopping practices Through their SC reflections, participants can recognize how the food they are able to consume connects to their income, nutrition needs, and other factors that contribute to quality of life. Participants articulate food (in)security in systemic terms related to their opportunities (or capabilities) for food access
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