Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Recommendations to Address Healthy Food Access in the United States

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federally funded program to provide food assistance to struggling Americans. The SNAP program, currently under review, is proposing a nearly 30% decrease, thus eliminating benefits for at least 4 million people and reducing benefits for many others. The current SNAP program only provides $1.40 per meal per person, leading to families rely on foods that are less expensive, and often provide less nutritional value, to stretch out their monthly allotment. The new SNAP proposal would drastically cut 260,000 store options around the country, in favor of a new government-driven approach of providing boxed food for SNAP households. SNAP participants are currently at a significant disadvantage in terms of dietary quality relative to non-participants in fruit and vegetable consumption. This policy change would further increase this issue. Food insecurity, even marginal food security, is associated with chronic and costly health problems and behaviors among adults. SNAP participants may be at a higher risk of having a nutritional intake pattern of low consumption of all the five major food groups, while also consuming larger than recommended amounts of fats, sugars, and sodium. Not only are SNAP participants consuming less across all main food groups, their dietary quality is less than non-SNAP participants including whole grains, leafy green vegetables, and healthy meats, due to costs. With the SNAP program currently under review, we recommend the following policy changes,

• Increase participant availability through innovative options to increase consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains,

• Increase benefit disbursal to promote more frequent purchases with the goal to increase purchases of fresh fruit, vegetables and healthy meats, and

• Develop and implement nutrition education strategies to educate participants about spending their benefits on more nutritious, cost-effective meals.

Keyword: SNAP; Healthy Food; Food Policy Recommendation