USDA Announces Important SNAP Benefit Modernization
End Notes
[1] See Steven Carlson, Joseph Llobrera, and Brynne Keith-Jennings, “More Adequate SNAP Benefits Would Help Millions of Participants Better Afford Food,” CBPP, updated July 15, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/more-adequate-snap-benefits-would-help-millions-of-participants-better.
[2] The figures do not include the temporary, pandemic-related SNAP benefit increases that are now in place but expire in the coming months.
[3] CBPP analysis using the Supplemental Poverty Measure and Census data for 2017, with adjustments for underreporting from the Department of Health and Human Services/Urban Institute Transfer Income Model (TRIM). See footnote 15.
[4] Richard Kerr et al., “USDA 1983 Thrifty Food Plan,” Family Economics Review, 1985, https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US8530634; Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, “The Thrifty Food Plan, 1999 Administrative Report,” USDA, October 1999, https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/FoodPlans1999ThriftyFoodPlanAdminReport.pdf; Andrea Carlson et al., “Thrifty Food Plan, 2006,” Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, USDA, April 2007, https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/usda_food_plans_cost_of_food/TFP2006Report.pdf.
[5] The first version of the TFP was released in 1975, replacing the 1962 Economy Food Plan. The cost of the 1975 TFP was set to the cost of the 1962 Economy Food Plan, adjusted for inflation. Before the release of the 2021 TFP, the real purchasing power of the TFP had not been adjusted in nearly 60 years. See U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Thrifty Food Plan, 2021,” August 2021, https://FNS.usda.gov/TFP.
[6] Since the 1970s, women’s labor force participation increased for all race/ethnicity groups. Labor force participation was higher among Black women than white and Latina women over the full period; in recent years labor force participation among white and Latina women has become essentially equal and the gap with Black women has narrowed. U.S. Department of Labor, “Labor force participation rate by sex, race and Hispanic ethnicity,” https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/lfp/lfp-sex-race-hispanic.
[7] Carlson, Llobrera, and Keith-Jennings, op. cit.
[8] To address rising food hardship, during the COVID-19 public health emergency policymakers have increased SNAP benefits in two primary ways. First, SNAP emergency allotments, authorized by the March 2020 Families First Coronavirus Response Act, push SNAP households to the SNAP maximum allotment if they do not already receive that amount. The Biden Administration expanded these in April 2021, as the Trump Administration’s implementation originally excluded nearly 40 percent of SNAP households with the lowest incomes. The added benefits end when a state or federal public health emergency ends or a state opts not to provide them. Second, the December 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act included a 15 percent increase to SNAP maximum benefits for January to June 2021, which the American Rescue Plan, enacted in March 2021, extended through September 2021. See CBPP, “States Are Using Much-Needed Temporary Flexibility in SNAP to Respond to COVID-19 Challenges,” updated August 6, 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/states-are-using-much-needed-temporary-flexibility-in-snap-to-respond-to.
[9] See https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2.
[10] USDA reviewed available research and evidence on the relationship between income and prices paid for foods, the amount of time households spend on food-related activities, the relationship between diet quality and factors like income and food cost, and factors that influence the purchase of ready-to-eat foods meant for at-home consumption. See https://nesr.usda.gov/usda-food-plans-rapid-reviews-and-evidence-scans.
[11] For a summary of the changes USDA made in the reevaluation see USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, “At a Glance, The Thrifty Food Plan Re-Evaluation,” August 2021, https://www.fns.usda.gov/TFP/evaluationinfographic.
[12] The TFP does not require SNAP households to purchase and prepare particular kinds of foods. It illustrates the types and amounts of food that households could purchase at the cost of the TFP.
[13] The 2006 TFP assumed that to afford a healthy diet, a family of four would need about $5.70 a day. Under the updated TFP that figure rises to $6.89 per person per day. Averaged across all SNAP households the prior TFP assumed that each person needed about $6.00 per day, compared to an updated figure of about $7.30 per person per day. SNAP average benefits are lower than the TFP because the program’s rules assume households will spend some of their income toward their food needs, so SNAP benefits do not cover all of most households’ food costs.
[14] USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, “Estimated Increase in SNAP Benefits, FY2022, by State, From Re-evaluated Thrifty Food Plan,” August 2021, https://www.fns.usda.gov/TFP/state_table.
[15] In 2017, SNAP kept about 6.5 million people above the poverty line, including 3.1 million children, according to a CBPP analysis that uses a version of the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) — which, among other differences from the “official” poverty measure, counts non-cash benefits (like SNAP) and refundable tax credits — and corrects for households’ underreporting of benefits. The SPM also subtracts federal and state income taxes, federal payroll taxes, and certain non-discretionary expenses (such as out-of-pocket health costs and child care) from income when calculating what resources a family has available to buy basics such as food, clothing, and shelter. Under the SPM, a family is considered to be in poverty if its resources are below a poverty threshold ($27,005 for a two-adult, two-child family renting in an average-cost community in 2017) that accounts for differences in family composition and geographic differences in housing costs.
[16] These CBPP estimates are based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2018 Current Population Survey, using tax year 2017 tax rules that account for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. They include corrections for underreported benefits from SNAP, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families from the Department of Health and Human Services/Urban Institute Transfer Income Model (TRIM). The estimates reflect a pre-pandemic economy and do not account for temporary measures enacted to help reduce hardship during the pandemic, such as the temporary increase in the Child Tax Credit.
[17] In this calculation racial and ethnic categories do not overlap; figures for each racial group such as Black or Asian do not include individuals who identify as multiracial or of Latino ethnicity. Latino includes all people of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin regardless of race.
[18] In these data, rural areas include all geographic areas that are not classified as metropolitan. The federal government defines a metropolitan area as a county or counties containing an urbanized area of 50,000 or more residents plus surrounding counties linked by commuting.
[19] Much of the rural-metro difference in poverty reduction reflects geographic differences in how much money a family needs in order to be considered above the poverty line according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure. SPM poverty thresholds are tied to local rent levels and are generally lower in non-metropolitan areas; this makes it easier to lift a family above the SPM poverty line in those communities. Without this geographic adjustment to poverty thresholds, we estimate that the TFP adjustment would reduce rural child poverty by 13 percent and overall child poverty by 11 percent.
[20] Anna Gassman-Pines and Laura Bellows, “Food instability and academic achievement: a quasi-experiment using SNAP benefit timing,” American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 55, No. 5, 2018, pp. 897-927, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0002831218761337.
[21] These amounts are 23 percent higher than the amounts the two territories received in fiscal year 2021, reflecting both the 21 percent increase in the TFP and the annual inflation adjustment that would otherwise have applied for fiscal year 2022. USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, “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; and USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, “Thrifty Food Plan Increase Means More Nutrition Assistance Funding for American Samoa,” August 16, 2021, https://www.fns.usda.gov/news-item/wro-081621.
[22] USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, “The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP): Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) Adjustment of TEFAP Funding,” August 16, 2021, https://www.fns.usda.gov/tefap/thrifty-food-plan-tfp-adjustment-tefap-funding.
[23] USDA, Food and Nutrition Service, “SNAP – Fiscal Year 2022 Cost-of-Living Adjustments,” August 16, 2021, https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/2022-SNAP-COLA-%20Maximum-Allotments.pdf.
[24] For example, with the 15 percent increase and emergency allotments from COVID-19 relief legislation now in effect, in most states a household with two members is receiving $430 in monthly SNAP benefits. With the 15 percent increase ending but the 21 percent adjustment to the TFP (as well as the regular annual cost-of-living adjustment of 1.5 percent), the new benefit starting on October 1 for a household with two members will be $459, an increase of $29, or $14.50 per person.
[25] See footnote 8.