The American Rescue Plan Act Is a Great Start but More Increases in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits Are Likely Needed Due to Implicit Hidden Reductions.
J Nutr
; 151(8): 2099-2104, 2021 08 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1243495
ABSTRACT
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is intended to help low-income individuals reach the cost of a nutritious diet. In response to the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, SNAP benefits have been increased by 20.3% since October 2020. Given the intended goal of the program, is the 20.3% increase enough? Even prior to COVID-19, the literature had identified 3 separate shortcomings in the current formula that had not been addressed. Here, these shortcomings are integrated into a unifying framework that allows for a comparison between an adjusted formula, that accounts for all these shortcomings, and the current unadjusted formula, that does not account for these shortcomings. Using some average data from the literature, the current unadjusted formula gives the misleading impression that the government will provide 71% of the cost of a nutritious diet with households responsible for 29%. However, working with the adjusted formula, that takes into account the shortcomings, reveals the government actually only provides 41% of the adjusted cost of a nutritious diet and households are responsible for 59%. Some actual and recommended adjustments are shown to fall far short of the full adjustment required to reach a nutritious diet, on average. In particular, the 20.3% increase is less than half of the amount needed to fully correct for these omissions.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Food Assistance
/
Food Supply
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Nutr
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Jn
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