Chart Book: SNAP Helps Struggling Families Put Food on the Table
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program.
- SNAP reaches millions of people who need food assistance. It’s one of the few means-tested government benefit programs available to almost all households with low incomes. For basic information on the program, see “Policy Basics: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” and “A Quick Guide to SNAP Eligibility and Benefits.”
- SNAP promotes long-term health and well-being, especially for children. Research shows that SNAP reduces poverty and food insecurity, and that over the long term, these impacts lead to improved health and economic outcomes, especially for those who receive SNAP as children. For more on the long-term impacts of SNAP, see “SNAP Is Linked with Improved Health Outcomes and Lower Health Care Costs.”
This chart book highlights some key characteristics of the 41 million people using the program in a typical month, trends and data on program administration and use, and data on SNAP’s effectiveness in fighting food insecurity and poverty and improving health, education, and labor market outcomes. It complements more detailed analyses on particular aspects of SNAP available on our website. Also, new data for some material in this chartbook were released before its completion. We will be updating this piece accordingly.
Part I: SNAP Responds to Changes in Poverty and the Economy
Trends in food insecurity are closely tied to trends in poverty. Both poverty and food insecurity typically rise in response to economic downturns, as more people experience income or job losses. Following the Great Recession of 2007-09, for example, the share of the U.S. population in poverty rose to 15.1 percent in 2010, according to Census Bureau estimates. The ensuing economic recovery was slow; the poverty rate did not decline significantly until 2015 and did not reach pre-recession levels until 2016. In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic caused a global recession, the poverty rate was 10.5 percent, the lowest on record in data going back to 1959.
Food insecurity followed a generally similar trend. The national household food insecurity rate — that is, the share of households who lacked access to adequate food at some point during the year — rose in response to the Great Recession, reaching 14.9 percent in 2011. It declined over subsequent years, to 10.5 percent in 2019.
The COVID-19 recession was the shortest on record, and the recovery was buoyed by robust federal relief measures. A strong government response, including temporary pandemic SNAP Emergency Allotments and a 15 percent increase to maximum SNAP benefits, averted large increases in food insecurity and poverty during the pandemic.[1] The poverty rate using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which — unlike the official measure — counts non-cash government assistance as income and accounts for taxes and other expenses, actually fell to a record low of 7.8 percent in 2021, while food insecurity remained statistically unchanged between 2019 and 2021.[2]
With the expiration of the pandemic relief programs and a sharp increase in food inflation in 2022, SPM poverty and food insecurity both increased in 2022, further evidence that government aid is critical to alleviating hardship for struggling families.[3]
Several measures may have prevented food insecurity from being even higher in 2022. Most notably, 2022 was the first full year since USDA revised the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), the basis of SNAP benefit levels, following a directive supported on a bipartisan basis in the 2018 farm bill to periodically reevaluate the TFP. The revision increased SNAP’s modest average benefits by about $1.40 per person per day, to just $6.20 per person per day in fiscal year 2024. Additionally, most states were still issuing Emergency Allotments in 2022, and Pandemic EBT grocery benefits were available to school-age children, as they had been for the summer of 2021, to compensate for the free or reduced-price school meals children missed when schools were closed for the summer.[4] (See box, “Several Major Factors Have Affected SNAP Benefits in Recent Years.”)
The number of SNAP participants rises due to economic downturns and falls as the economic recovery reaches more low-income households. After unemployment insurance, SNAP historically has been the most responsive federal program in assisting families and communities during economic downturns. SNAP grew rapidly in response to each of the four recessions in the last 30 years, as more people lost employment or income and more households qualified for benefits and applied for help.
The COVID-19 pandemic reversed a long decline in SNAP caseloads. Caseloads expanded significantly between 2007 and 2011, due largely to the Great Recession and subsequent slow recovery.[5] Caseloads peaked at 47 million in December 2012, then declined over the next six years. SNAP expanded again in 2020 and 2021, but by a smaller amount than in the Great Recession, to meet the needs of struggling households during the pandemic. Caseloads have since remained essentially flat nationally.[6] The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that caseloads will enter a new period of decline starting in 2024.[7]
SNAP enrollment grew rapidly in the first few months of the pandemic. Most of the country experienced significant caseload growth in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Between February and June 2020, all but two states saw caseload increases, which averaged about 15 percent nationally.
Enrollment relative to pre-pandemic levels varies by state. After growing quickly in the first months of the pandemic, the national SNAP caseload has been flat at 41 to 42 million people. But there has been significant variation across states. Between 2019 and 2023, the share of the population participating in SNAP declined in 16 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, remained roughly unchanged in 13 states, and grew in 21 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam.[8]
SNAP spending increased during the pandemic but has since fallen and is expected to approach pre-pandemic levels as a share of the economy. Measured as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), SNAP spending rose in response to the Great Recession due to increased participation and the 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary SNAP benefit increase. It then fell for six years during the recovery. Similarly, SNAP spending increased during the pandemic due to higher participation and temporary benefit increases, as well as to a revision to the Thrifty Food Plan that better aligned SNAP benefits with current science-based dietary guidelines and food consumption patterns.
SNAP spending reached a new peak in 2022 but then fell in 2023 with the expiration of the temporary pandemic benefits. (Spending fell in nominal terms as well, by 9 percent.) CBO expects SNAP spending to decline again in 2024 and in future years and to approach 2019 levels by 2034.
Unlike health care programs and Social Security, SNAP doesn’t face demographic or programmatic pressures that would cause its costs to grow faster than the economy over the long term. SNAP thus doesn’t contribute to the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.
Part II: Benefits Are More Adequate But Still Modest After 2021 Thrifty Food Plan Reevaluation
SNAP benefits are modest. SNAP benefits are higher than prior to the pandemic due to the Thrifty Food Plan revision (see box, “Several Major Factors Have Affected SNAP Benefits in Recent Years”) and cost-of-living adjustments to reflect high food inflation in recent years. Benefits nevertheless remain modest. In fiscal year 2024 the Thrifty Food Plan update increased benefits by $1.40 per person per day, to about $6.20 per person per day. This update better aligned SNAP benefits with the cost of a healthy diet according to modern dietary recommendations, and it lifted an estimated 2.4 million people, including more than 1 million children, above the poverty line.[9]
SNAP benefits are based on need: very low-income households receive larger benefits than households with more income since they need more help affording an adequate diet. The benefit formula assumes that families will spend 30 percent of their net income for food; SNAP provides enough additional benefits to meet the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan. A family with no net income has no money for food and thus receives the maximum benefit amount, which equals the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan for a household of its size.
Part III: SNAP Helps Families Afford Adequate Food, Reduces Food Insecurity and Poverty
SNAP helps families put enough food on the table. Studies have found that SNAP benefits reduce food insecurity, which occurs when households lack consistent access to nutritious food because of limited resources. One study found that participating in SNAP reduced households’ food insecurity by as much as 10 percentage points and reduced “very low food security,” which occurs when one or more household members have to skip meals or otherwise eat less because they lack money, by about 6 percentage points.[10] Because SNAP enables low-income households to spend more on food than their limited budgets would otherwise allow, it helps ensure that they have enough to eat. SNAP may also reduce racial and ethnic disparities in food insecurity.
Although SNAP has been proven effective in reducing food insecurity, nearly half of the households who received SNAP benefits in 2022 still experienced food insecurity.[11] Also, there is growing evidence that the recent cut in benefits when the pandemic Emergency Allotments ended resulted in greater food insecurity.[12] These facts highlight the importance of protecting and improving SNAP benefits.
SNAP lifts millions of households out of poverty. By providing benefits that can only be used to purchase food, SNAP forms an important part of a low-income household’s budget. A CBPP analysis using the government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (which counts SNAP as income) and correcting for underreporting in government surveys found that SNAP kept 6.6 million people above the poverty line before the COVID-19 pandemic, including 3 million children.[13] A related CBPP analysis found that SNAP has one of the strongest anti-poverty effects of any program.[14]
Increasing SNAP benefits has helped families afford adequate food. Previous increases have been effective at reducing poverty and food insecurity, evidence suggests. Research on the food security of SNAP recipients during the Great Recession found that very low food security fell in 2009 — the same year the SNAP benefit increase from the 2009 Recovery Act took effect — among SNAP-eligible households with low incomes.[15] More recently, a study of the effect of temporary pandemic benefits on SNAP households found that the Emergency Allotments and Thrifty Food Plan revision kept some 6.5 million people out of poverty in the fourth quarter of 2021. The poverty reductions were especially large for Black and Latino people.[16]
Part IV: SNAP May Mitigate Persistent Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Food Insecurity
Racial and ethnic disparities in food insecurity rates are wide and persistent. Long-standing racial disparities, deeply rooted in racism and discrimination, have created starkly unequal opportunities and outcomes in education, employment, health, and housing, leading to substantial racial gaps in both income and wealth.[17] Partly for this reason, food insecurity — which is far more common among individuals and families with lower incomes — is far more common among people of color as well.
For decades, the food insecurity rates for households that are American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, or multiracial have been at least twice the white rate. Research suggests that the causes of the inequities in food insecurity between Black and white households, for instance, are systemic and lie outside the control of individuals.[18] Past and present racism and systemic bias create economic barriers that can affect a person’s income. Lack of income and other resources, in turn, increases the risk of food insecurity.[19]
Certain communities of color are disproportionately likely to participate in SNAP to help meet their food needs. Black, Hispanic, and multiracial households have higher poverty rates than white households. They also have higher rates of food insecurity than white households.[20] These communities of color are therefore more likely to be eligible for, and participate in, SNAP.
Twenty-six percent of SNAP households are headed by a Black, non-Hispanic person and 22 percent are headed by a Hispanic person. These figures exceed their shares of the general U.S. population (12 percent and 20 percent, respectively).[21]
Studies suggest SNAP mitigates racial disparities in food insecurity and poverty. While Black households are more likely to be food insecure than white households overall, one study found that, among households participating in SNAP, this pattern was reversed: Black households were less likely than white households to be food insecure.[22]
Another study found that, among individuals who experienced poverty in childhood, those who had access to food stamps (now SNAP) in childhood were less likely to experience poverty as young adults than those who didn’t have access to food stamps, and the effect was stronger for Black than for white individuals.[23]
Still another study found that SNAP benefits, by increasing food expenditures, reduce the gap between what households spend on food and the estimated level of food spending that households need to be food secure. It also found that the reduction is greater for Black and Hispanic households than for white households.[24]
Part V: SNAP Is Linked With Improved Health Outcomes
SNAP is associated with improved health. The stress that food-insecure families face because they can’t consistently put healthy food on the table, along with the health effects of unpredictable or intermittent meals, may contribute to a higher risk of chronic conditions and other adverse health outcomes. Because SNAP reduces food insecurity and associated stress and frees up income for households to buy healthier food, SNAP may be a path toward better health.
Research links SNAP with several improved health outcomes. After adjusting for differences in demographic, socioeconomic, and other characteristics, adults who participate in SNAP are more likely to assess their own health as excellent or very good, as are parents when assessing their child’s health. Adults who receive SNAP have fewer sick days, make fewer visits to a doctor, are less likely to forgo needed care because they cannot afford it, and are less likely to exhibit psychological distress.
Other researchers have shown that children receiving SNAP are less likely than low-income non-participants to be in fair or poor health or underweight, and their families are less likely to make trade-offs between paying for health care and paying for other basic needs, like food, housing, heating, and electricity. Research has also shown that elderly SNAP participants are less likely than similar non-participants to cut back on prescribed medications due to cost.
Access to SNAP can improve health and educational outcomes. When researchers compared the long-term outcomes of individuals in different areas of the country as SNAP gradually expanded nationwide in the 1960s and early 1970s, they found that disadvantaged children in counties that provided access to food stamps in early childhood and whose mothers had access during their pregnancy had better health and educational outcomes as adults than children in counties that did not provide access to food stamps. Among other things, children in counties with access to food stamps were less likely in adulthood to have stunted growth, be diagnosed with heart disease, or be obese. They also were more likely to graduate from high school. [25]
SNAP participation is also linked with lower overall health care expenditures. An analysis of national data on overall health care expenditures links SNAP participation to lower health care costs. On average, after controlling for factors expected to affect spending on medical care, low-income adults participating in SNAP incur about $1,400, or nearly 25 percent, less than non-participants in medical care costs in a year, including those paid by private or public insurance.[26]
Part VI: SNAP Serves People in Particular Need of Assistance
A large majority of SNAP participants are children, older adults, or people with disabilities. Roughly 2 in 5 participants are children, and most non-elderly adult participants without disabilities live with children.
SNAP serves families in particular need of assistance. Fully 90 percent of participants are in households that contain a child under age 18, an elderly person 60 years or older, or an individual with disabilities.
SNAP households have very low incomes. Over 80 percent of SNAP households have gross incomes at or below the poverty line ($24,864 for a family of three in fiscal year 2024, and $14,580 for a person living alone, such as an elderly widow). Most of the rest have incomes between 101 and 130 percent of poverty. Thirty-six percent of SNAP households have incomes at or below half of the poverty line.
Some 92 percent of SNAP benefits go to households below the poverty line; about 54 percent go to households at or below half of the poverty line.
Part VII: SNAP Supports Working Families and Those Unable to Work
Most SNAP participants are not expected to work. In a typical month during the pre-pandemic months of 2020, 71 percent of SNAP recipients weren’t expected to work because they were children, elderly, individuals with disabilities, or caring for a family member with a disability in their home or for a child under age 6 where another household member was working.
SNAP supports workers in low-paying jobs. Close to two-thirds of workers who receive SNAP benefits work in major occupation groups such as service, professional, transportation and material moving, and office and administrative support. Common occupations of SNAP participants include cooks, cashiers, telemarketers, nursing assistants, housekeepers, and dishwashers.
In many of these jobs, workers earn low wages and have irregular work schedules, with fewer or less consistent hours than they would like. As a result, they may use SNAP benefits to supplement their low incomes. In addition, workers often cycle in and out of these jobs and participate in SNAP during periods of unemployment or underemployment.[27]
Most SNAP participants work, and many turn to SNAP when they are between jobs. The low pay and instability in many low-paying jobs can contribute to income volatility and job turnover. Low-paid workers, including many who participate in SNAP, are more likely than other workers to experience periods when they are out of work or when their monthly earnings drop, at least temporarily. These dynamics lead many adults to participate in SNAP temporarily, often while between jobs or when their work hours are cut. Others, such as workers with steady but low-paying jobs or those unable to work, participate over the longer term.
A CBPP analysis found that 55 percent of non-elderly adults without a disability who participated in SNAP in a typical month in 2015 worked in that month, while 74 percent worked in the 12 months before or after that month. Work rates were even higher for two other groups: households with a non-disabled, non-elderly adult and households with children and a non-disabled, non-elderly adult. All three groups showed a higher work rate when measured over the longer time period (25 months versus one month) — evidence that SNAP recipients’ joblessness is often just temporary.
Another CBPP analysis found that 86 percent of SNAP households that included a non-disabled working-age adult but no minor children had earned income in 2021.[28]
Many non-elderly, non-disabled SNAP participants who are not working in a typical month while they are participating in SNAP have recently worked or will soon work, or have caregiving responsibilities, or face barriers to work. The CBPP analysis also found that of those adults who were not working in the month studied, close to half worked in either the year before or the year after that month. Many people participate in SNAP while between jobs and continue to work in most months when receiving SNAP. Those who did not work over the 25-month period studied most frequently reported they had health issues that affected their ability to work, had caregiving responsibilities, couldn’t find work, or were attending school.[29]
The share of SNAP households that work in an average month while receiving SNAP has grown over the past three decades. Work rates have risen among all SNAP households over time, but especially among households with children. This overall trend continued despite the large job losses during economic downturns such as the Great Recession. In more recent years, the share of households with earnings has declined, partly due to the increase in older adults’ share of the SNAP caseload as the overall U.S. population ages.[30] Older adults are more likely to rely on fixed incomes and less likely to have earnings.
More older adults are participating in SNAP. The number of older adults receiving SNAP benefits has doubled since 2009, outpacing population growth for older adults in the general population.[31] Participation rates for older adults have increased but are still lower than for other age groups.
SNAP helps working families make ends meet. SNAP benefits have increased in recent years as a result of the 2021 Thrifty Food Plan revision and cost-of-living adjustments reflecting food inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a family of three with one full-time worker who earns $12.40 an hour (the hourly wage for a household of three with an annual income at the federal poverty level in 2024), SNAP boosts the family’s take-home income by roughly 21 to 29 percent, depending on the number of hours worked. For a mother with two children who works 35 hours a week, for example, adding her SNAP benefits increases her monthly income by 29 percent.
SNAP’s benefit structure supports workers. The SNAP benefit formula is designed to support workers, phasing out benefits slowly as earnings rise. The benefit formula favors earned income over unearned income by enabling participants to take an earnings deduction equal to 20 percent of their earned income, which enables them to qualify for a larger SNAP benefit.
SNAP also provides crucial support for workers if they become unemployed: they can receive benefits quickly and on a monthly basis, unlike some other programs that have waiting lists or provide benefits annually.
Part VIII: SNAP Reaches Most Eligible People, With Some Important Exceptions
SNAP participation rates have declined somewhat after generally rising over time. SNAP reached 82 percent of eligible individuals in a typical month in 2019, the most recent full year of data. That represents a significant improvement from 2001, when participation bottomed out at 54 percent. Among eligible individuals in working families, participation rose from 43 percent to 71 percent between 2002 and 2019. Participation rates among older adults are much lower but have risen over time as well, from 26 percent in 2002 to 48 percent in 2019.
The general trend of participation increasing over time holds true for eligible non-citizens and children who are citizens who live with non-citizens, but declines have been steeper in recent years. People without a documented immigration status are ineligible for SNAP, but those with lawful immigration statuses, such as immigrant children, refugees, asylees, and qualified immigrant adults who have been in the U.S. for at least five years, are eligible. (Citizen children living with non-citizen adults are eligible on the same basis as other children.) Among eligible non-citizens, participation rates rose from 28 percent in 2002 to a peak of 66 percent in 2016, then declined to 55 percent in 2019.
Participation rates vary widely by state. Some states serve a high percentage of eligible households, such as Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Others serve a relatively low percentage, such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Wyoming. In every state except Wyoming, however, more than 50 percent of eligible individuals participate.[32]
Working families with low incomes are underserved in many states. SNAP provides an important support for working low-income individuals, but this population is often hard to reach. In 2019 (the most recent year of data available), 72 percent of eligible working low-income individuals participated. In all states except Indiana, working low-income individuals participated at a lower rate than all eligible individuals in the state.
Older adults are underserved. Many low-income older adults who struggle to get by on low, fixed incomes and have critical unmet dietary needs don’t participate in SNAP. Only 48 percent of eligible individuals over age 60 participated in 2019 nationwide, though participation rates had risen modestly in the 2000s and 2010s.[33]
Participation among eligible older adults varies widely across states. In 2018, the most recent year for which state-level estimates are available, state-level participation rates ranged from 22 percent to 78 percent.[34]
Part IX: SNAP Is Efficient
Nearly 94 percent of federal SNAP spending goes for benefits to purchase food. The rest goes toward administrative costs, including reviews to determine that applicants are eligible, monitoring of retailers that accept SNAP, and program integrity and anti-fraud activities.
The federal government spent about $115 billion on SNAP in fiscal year 2023, including pandemic-related SNAP benefits (but excluding pandemic-related school meal benefits known as Pandemic EBT). The SNAP budget also funds other food assistance programs, including the block grant for food assistance in Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, commodity purchases for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (which helps fund food pantries and soup kitchens), and commodities for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.
SNAP has an extensive quality control system. SNAP has one of the most rigorous payment error measurement systems of any public benefit program. Each year states pull a representative sample (totaling some 50,000 cases nationally) and thoroughly review the accuracy of their eligibility and benefit decisions. Federal officials re-review a subsample of the cases to ensure accuracy in the error rate they assign each state. States face financial penalties if their error rates are persistently above the national average.
A USDA Office of Inspector General report in 2015 drew attention to concerns about data quality issues with SNAP error rates in many states. As a result, USDA did not report national or state-level error rates for all states for 2015 or 2016; during this time USDA conducted detailed reviews in all states and took action to address the quality and consistency of the measure. The corrected SNAP error rates for 2017 and 2018 were higher, an increase USDA attributed to the improved measurement process.
Quality control requirements were suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, so error rates were not established for those years. Error rates in 2022 were well above earlier levels, reflecting the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. The national SNAP overpayment rate in 2023, the most recent year available, was 10.03 percent. The underpayment rate was 1.64 percent, though this does not include underpayments for households who were improperly denied benefits.
SNAP’s pandemic-related administrative flexibilities were intended to help states process new applications and keep people connected to SNAP during a temporary time of severe economic challenges. They were successful at meeting that goal: SNAP participation rates rose, and food insecurity held steady in 2020 and 2021 despite the increase in need. However, these flexibilities, which were largely still in effect in 2022 and 2023, may also have contributed to higher error rates in some states.
Part X:SNAP Is an Important Public-Private Partnership
SNAP boosts local economies. Because most households redeem their monthly SNAP benefits quickly, SNAP is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus during a downturn. A USDA study estimated that every dollar in new SNAP benefits spent during a slowing economy would increase the gross domestic product by $1.54; earlier studies estimated this effect to be as high as $1.80 during a recession. According to the USDA study, the increase in SNAP benefits during a slowing economy has the largest effects on spending for food and durable goods, and on income and jobs in industries such as manufacturing, trade, and transportation.[35]
Further evidence that SNAP provides important stimulus to local economies comes from a study indicating that SNAP benefit redemptions give a greater boost to employment during recessionary periods than during economic expansions. The impact on rural employment is especially strong: during the Great Recession, SNAP benefits boosted employment in non-metropolitan (rural) counties by one job per $10,000 in benefits redeemed, compared to 0.4 jobs in metropolitan (urban) counties. Furthermore, SNAP benefits did more to boost employment during the Great Recession than all other federal and state government transfer programs combined.[36]
Food stores can participate in SNAP if they stock a prescribed variety of foods and provide adequate information on the nature and scope of their business. This ensures that SNAP participants can redeem benefits in many of the stores and settings available to other consumers, though some geographic areas have few or no authorized retailers. Participating retailers include superstores (such as warehouse clubs and big-box retailers), supermarkets, grocery stores, corner stores, and farmers markets. Convenience stores were the largest single category in fiscal year 2022, representing 44 percent of all SNAP retailers. Stores that combine grocery and other retail store formats represented a quarter of all SNAP retailers. Farmers markets, commissaries, wholesalers, food co-operatives, and meal service facilities represented 5 percent.
The number of SNAP retailers has risen considerably. In 2022 some 258,000 retailers were authorized to accept SNAP benefits — 78 percent more than in 2003.
SNAP households spend most of their benefits at supermarkets and superstores. Participants redeemed 78 percent of their benefits at superstores and supermarkets in fiscal year 2022, even though these stores make up only 15 percent of all available retailers. Superstores alone redeemed 52 percent of all benefits.
While nearly half of SNAP retailers are convenience stores, they are a minor source of food for participants, redeeming only 5 percent of SNAP benefits.
Part XI: Food Assistance in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico’s food assistance program has fixed funding, lower benefits. Puerto Rico faces chronically high poverty and low labor force participation, due in part to significant lingering effects from a number of crises over the past decades, including devastating hurricanes in 2017, bankruptcy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[37] Nearly 42 percent of Puerto Rico’s population lived in poverty in 2022, and its annual unemployment rate stood at 6 percent in 2023.[38]
Puerto Rico participated in SNAP’s predecessor, the Food Stamp Program, until 1982, when Congress converted the territory’s program into a capped block grant program.[39] As with SNAP, participants in Puerto Rico’s program — called the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP) — receive monthly benefits they can redeem using electronic debit cards at grocery stores. Eligibility for NAP is based on a household’s size, income, and resources. Unlike SNAP, NAP is not an entitlement program; its annual funding is fixed regardless of changes in need, so NAP cannot respond easily to significant economic shifts or the aftermath of extreme weather.[40]
Base funding for NAP remained flat, after adjusting for food inflation, from the mid-1990s through 2021, although Congress authorized temporary funding increases in response to the Great Recession, destructive hurricanes in 2017, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[41] The 2021 Thrifty Food Plan revision resulted in a permanent 23 percent increase in NAP funding beginning in fiscal year 2022.[42] But even with the increase, NAP benefits are far less generous than they would have been if Puerto Rico participated in SNAP.[43] For the nearly 1.4 million individuals who received NAP benefits in an average month in fiscal year 2023, benefits averaged about $175 per person per month, or about $1.90 per person per meal. The average household received roughly $307 per month.[44]
The U.S. Territories of American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) also receive capped block grants for nutrition assistance in lieu of participating in SNAP, despite having among the highest poverty rates in the country and being increasingly prone to devastating storms. Similar to Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the CNMI must constrain benefit levels and eligibility for their food assistance programs to stay within their block grant funding, rather than base them on need or the price of food.
End Notes
[1] Kris Cox, Samantha Jacoby, and Chuck Marr, “Stimulus Payments, Child Tax Credit Expansion Were Critical Parts of Successful COVID-19 Policy Response,” CBPP, June 22, 2022, https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/stimulus-payments-child-tax-credit-expansion-were-critical-parts-of-successful.
[2] Danilo Trisi, “Government’s Pandemic Response Turned a Would-Be Poverty Surge Into a Record Poverty Decline,” CBPP, August 29, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/governments-pandemic-response-turned-a-would-be-poverty-surge-into.
[3] Lauren Hall, “Food Insecurity Increased in 2022, With Severe Impact on Households With Children and Ongoing Racial Inequities,” CBPP, October 26, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/blog/food-insecurity-increased-in-2022-with-severe-impact-on-households-with-children-and-ongoing; Sharon Parrott, “Record Rise in Poverty Highlights Importance of Child Tax Credit; Health Coverage Marks a High Point Before Pandemic Safeguards Ended,” CBPP, September 12, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/record-rise-in-poverty-highlights-importance-of-child-tax-credit-health-coverage.
[4] Hall.
[5]Research found that economic factors (such as the unemployment rate) explained between about half and 90 percent of the increase in SNAP caseloads between 2007 and 2011. Peter Ganong and Jeffrey B. Liebman, “The Decline, Rebound, and Further Rise in SNAP Enrollment: Disentangling Business Cycle Fluctuations and Policy Changes,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Vol. 10, No. 4, November 2018, pp.153-176, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20140016&&from=f; James P. Ziliak, “Why Are So Many Americans on Food Stamps?” in SNAP Matters: How Food Stamps Affect Health and Well Being, J. Bartfeld et al., eds., Stanford University Press, 2015; Marianne Bitler and Hilary Hoynes, “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same? The Safety Net and Poverty in the Great Recession,” Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 34, No. S1, 2016; and Jacob Alex Klerman and Caroline Danielson, “Can the Economy Explain the Explosion in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program? An Assessment of the Local-Level Approach,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 98, Issue 1, 2016.
[6]Following a slight decline in 2022, caseloads increased slightly in 2023, when pandemic-related benefits and state flexibilities were ending and food inflation was high. Lauren Hall, “End of SNAP’s Temporary Emergency Allotments Resulted in Substantial Benefit Cut,” CBPP, September 21, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/blog/end-of-snaps-temporary-emergency-allotments-resulted-in-substantial-benefit-cut.
[7] Congressional Budget Office, “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – February 2024 Baseline,” February 2024, https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-02/51312-2024-02-snap.pdf.
[8]Ibid.
[9] Joseph Llobrera, Matt Saenz, and Lauren Hall, “USDA Announces Important SNAP Benefit Modernization,” CBPP, August 26, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/usda-announces-important-snap-benefit-modernization.
[10] U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), “Measuring the Effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation on Food Security,” August 2013, https://www.fns.usda.gov/measuring-effect-snap-participation-food-security-0.
[11] Matthew Rabbitt et al., “Household Food Security in the United States in 2022,” Economic Research Service, USDA, October 2023, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/107703/err-325.pdf?v=3583.6.
[12] Aaron Richterman, Christina Roberto, and Harsha Thirumurthy, “Associations Between Ending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Emergency Allotments and Food Insufficiency,” JAMA Health Forum, August 11, 2023, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2808293; Matthew Lavallee, Sandro Galea, and Nadia Abuelezam, “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Emergency Allotments and Food Security, Hospitalizations, and Hospital Capacity,” JAMA Network Open, August 9, 2023, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2808124; and Namrata Sanjeevi and Pablo Monsivais, “Association of emergency allotment discontinuation with household food insufficiency in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants: A quasi-experimental study,” Preventive Medicine, Vol. 177, December 2023, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743523003705.
[13] For estimates of people whom SNAP lifted above the poverty line, see CBPP Program Participation Data Dashboard, https://apps.cbpp.org/program_participation/#table/357/snap.
[14] Danilo Trisi and Matt Saenz, “Economic Security Programs Reduce Overall Poverty, Racial and Ethnic Inequities,” CBPP, updated July 1, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/more-than-4-in-10-children-in-renter-households-face-food-andor.
[15] Mark Nord and Mark Prell, “Food Security of SNAP Recipients Improved Following the 2009 Stimulus Package,” Economic Research Service, USDA, June 13, 2011, https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2011/june/food-security-of-snap/.
[16] Laura Wheaton and Danielle Kwon, “Effect of the Reevaluated Thrifty Food Plan and Emergency Allotments on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits and Poverty,” Urban Institute, August 1, 2022, https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effect-reevaluated-thrifty-food-plan-and-emergency-allotments-supplemental.
[17] Trisi and Saenz.
[18] Joshua Berning, Alessandro Bonanno, and Rebecca Cleary, “Disparities in food insecurity among Black and White households: An analysis by age cohort, poverty, education, and home ownership,” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, October 27, 2022, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aepp.13332.
[19] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, “Healthy People 2030: Food Insecurity,” accessed August 7, 2024,https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/food-insecurity .
[20] Ibid.
[21] U.S. Census Bureau, “ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates,” ACS 1-Year Estimates Data Profiles, Table DP05, 2022, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDP1Y2022.DP05?q=Population Total.
[22] Laura Samuel et al., “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Access and Racial Disparities in Food Insecurity,” JAMA Network Open, June 26, 2023, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.20196. The authors defined household racial composition (entirely Asian, entirely Black, entirely White, and multiple races or multiracial) based on categories in the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
[23] Benjamin Glasner et al., “The Effectiveness of the Food Stamp Program at Reducing Differences in the Intergenerational Persistence of Poverty,” Washington Center for Equitable Growth, May 2023, https://equitablegrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/053023-WP-The-Effectiveness-of-the-Food-Stamp-Program-at-Reducing-Racial-Differences-in-the-Intergenerational-Persistence-of-Poverty.pdf.
[24] Alfonso Flores-Lagunes et al., “Moving policies toward racial and ethnic equality: The case of the supplemental nutrition assistance program,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, May 4, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12402.
[25] Hilary Hoynes, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Douglas Almond, “Long-Run Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net,” American Economic Review, Vol. 106, No. 4, April 2016, pp. 903–934, https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Hoynes-Schanzenbach-Almond-AER-2016.pdf.
[26] Seth A. Berkowitz et al., “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation and Health Care Expenditures Among Low-Income Adults,” JAMA Internal Medicine, November 2017, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2653910 .
[27] Joseph Llobrera and Lauren Hall, “SNAP Helps Millions of Workers in Low-Paying Jobs,” CBPP, updated July 30, 2024, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-helps-millions-of-workers-in-low-paying-jobs
[28] Joseph Llobrera and Lauren Hall, “SNAP Provides Critical Benefits to Workers and Their Families,” CBPP, August 10, 2023, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-provides-critical-benefits-to-workers-and-their-families.
[29]Ibid.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Laura Blakeslee et al., “Age and Sex Composition: 2020,” U.S. Census Bureau, May 2023, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/2020/census-briefs/c2020br-06.pdf.
[32] USDA, “Empirical Bayes Shrinkage Estimates of State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates: Fiscal Year 2018 to Fiscal Year 2020,” August 2023, https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-participation-2020-tech-report.pdf.
[33] USDA, “Trends in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Rates: Fiscal Year 2016 to Fiscal Year 2020,” December 2022, https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-trends-fy2016-2020.pdf.
[34] USDA, “State Estimates of SNAP Participation Rates for Eligible Elderly Individuals, FY 2016 – FY 2018,” May 2021, https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/SNAPElderlyPartRates_2016-2018.pdf.
[35] Patrick Canning and Brian Stacy, “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Economy: New Estimates of the SNAP Multiplier,” Economic Research Service, USDA, July 2019, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/93529/err-265.pdf?v=8010.7.
[36] John Pender et al., “The Impacts of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Redemptions on County-Level Employment,” Economic Research Service, USDA, May 2019, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/93169/err-263.pdf?v=1509.3.
[37] Javier Balmaceda, “Long in Recession, Puerto Rico Needs More Than Just COVID-19 Relief to Overcome Its Crises,” CBPP, May 7, 2020, https://www.cbpp.org/research/long-in-recession-puerto-rico-needs-more-than-just-covid-19-relief-to-overcome-its-crises.
[38] U.S. Census Bureau, “Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months,” ACS 1-Year Estimates Subject Tables, Table S1701, 2022, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2022.S1701?g=040XX00US72; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Economy at a Glance: Puerto Rico,” February 21, 2024, https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.pr.htm.
[39] Brynne Keith-Jennings, “Introduction to Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program,” CBPP, updated November 3, 2020, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/introduction-to-puerto-ricos-nutrition-assistance-program .
[40] CBPP, “A Brief Overview of Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program,” updated June 11, 2020, https://www.cbpp.org/research/a-brief-overview-of-the-nutrition-assistance-program. American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands also receive nutrition assistance block grants in lieu of SNAP. Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are the two U.S. Territories that participate fully in SNAP.
[41] Brynne Keith-Jennings and Elizabeth Wolkomir, “How Does Household Food Assistance in Puerto Rico Compare to the Rest of the United States?” CBPP, updated November 3, 2020, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/how-is-food-assistance-different-in-puerto-rico-than-in-the-rest-of-the.
[42] USDA, “USDA Thrifty Food Plan Increase Means More Nutrition Assistance Funding for Puerto Rico,” August 16, 2021, https://www.fns.usda.gov/news-item/maro-081621.
[43] CBPP, “A Brief Overview of Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program.”
[44] USDA, “Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Benefits,” January 2024, https://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/puerto-rico-nutrition-assistance-program.