Note a slightly different format to topic, rather than state-based.

Snap Interview Waivers in some places expiring

I would be very curious to see any study performed exploring differences in program administration and case outcomes between while the waiver was in effect, and the before / after where the waiver is not in place. How has the speed of applications changed? Overpayment or underpayment rates? What do the caseworkers think about this change? I also came across this Reddit thread on the impact of interview waivers, but would like to see a structured case study.

What does better integration between SNAP and higher education look like?

Guaranteed college financial aid coming to WA students on food assistance, and the bill is here. Students in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade need to demonstrate family participation at some point in these years. “WCG award covers tuition, and services and activities fees, for 15 quarter credits or the equivalent at the state’s public institutions. A student is eligible to receive the WCG for five years or up to 125 percent of the published length of the student’s program.”

The adjustment from COVID-19 period policies that sped up SNAP renewals to are expiring, causing delays. From an article in the Santa Fe Reporter, “Human Services Department Director of Communications Marina Piña tells SFR the increase in individuals experiencing issues and delays with SNAP benefit renewals can be explained by the April 2023 end of COVID-related federal policies that allowed for automatic renewals and led to ‘a higher volume of applications and renewals than usual.’”

MA students urge lawmakers to fund campus anti-hunger efforts, just as SUNY Cobleskill opens food pantry with additional funding. Before reading these, I did not consider the role that state legislators would have in disbursing funds to schools to combat food insecurity; I think I assumed funding came from private endowments, college administrators, or NGOs. For example, the EKU campus is one of first in Kentucky to accept “SNAP’ benefits. But clearly lawmakers have a role in deciding eligibility for SNAP funds for college enrollees, as raised in Forbes recently in their article: 1 In 5 College Students Have Kids, How Are States Supporting Them?

Survey finds 67% of UNM students face food insecurity, but the linked news report does not share the survey, so I can’t give any more information, but this is a very high estimate that demands attention and review; it is nearly double a 2019 meta-review by Nikolaus et. al. I saw a similarly high estimate from a 2021 report (Food Insecurity at Urban Universities), but this is from one university and it does not appear to be a representative sample, nor do the indicate that the team used the USDA-recommended food insecurity screener? Here is a 2022 literature review (which focuses on student athletes), but finds a similar average of slightly above 30% for the general student population. This report from 2018 (Rethinking SNAP Benefits for College Students) mentions a few surveys that indicate results around 50% of those surveyed experienced food insecurity.

This smaller (n=33) unreplicated (as far as I know) 2019 study focused on whether the USDA screener was valid for college students and left unsure of its validity. But honestly, I don’t know about how reliable research like this is; other studies discussed in the above noted there are differences in responses by gender.

Shedding light on Food Insecurity at MSU (Montana) gave a perspective from a student that increasing awareness, more application guidance, and decreasing the stigma involved with SNAP are good steps moving forward.

College students eligible for food assistance deterred by confusing requirements is a news article based off of the following research paper (n=14): SNAP Student Rules Are Not So Snappy: Lessons Learned From a Qualitative Study of California County Agency Workers. Some nice lessons there, even if it is a smaller study. Do note that it claims “CalFresh participation remains low, with approximately 78% of those eligible not receiving benefits,” based on the Rethinking SNAP Benefits for College Students and Senate Bill 77 CalFresh Student Data Report. I think both linked reports are very up-front about the serious limitations of these estimates, so I would be wary of just reporting out that number.

D-SNAP alert and plans to clean data

Replacement benefits available for SNAP recipients impacted by storms

I did find where D-SNAP historical records are on the USDA website, so will work on cataloging those and formatting the data. Somehow failed to identify that I needed to click the map to see older years.

Puerto Rico doesn’t have SNAP, but NAP

I was not aware that Puerto Rico’s food assistance program was more limited, and here is a nice introduction to the NAP program from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. There is actually a feasibility study for Congress from 2022, and an updated report from 2023 is accessible from the USDA website. Here is the original report in Spanish.

How should we think about nutritional incentives for SNAP?

An op-ed supporting nutrition restrictions on purchasing groceries with SNAP benefits. As brought up before, an incentives-based approach would likely be a more feasible approach (like doubling benefits at farmers markets) - cataloguing what is and is not healthy, political pressure from grocery stores fearing decreased spending from SNAP, etc. But I am curious about alternative mechanisms to encourage the purchase of healthier foods. In most states, ultra-processed foods taxed more, I thought; Yet sales tax is not charged when using SNAP. Oddly, when using a mixture of cash and benefits to pay, it appears that first the SNAP benefits are applied to items that can be taxed, and the cash is used to purchase exempt items. This workaround does seem a bit odd to me.

An almost nice write up on the subject is here - but in one part, it points out that since this is the case, SNAP benefits likely over count the amount of taxed food (and the taxed food in question may be more often unhealthy food) - but the summary of the original study points out that it uses the entire transaction in question, not just the portion paid for by SNAP benefits.

PBS did a nice write up and filmed segment on the state laws limiting access to SNAP.

Most of the stuff that you get at the food banks are like very high-carbureted or starchy items. And my son’s a diabetic, but we have to use it. We have no choice.

Betsy Cruz

Slightly unrelated point, but it shows the importance of meeting dietary requirements of food pantries for individuals. That aside, the article notes that Kansas is one of five states where you have to apply for child support when participating in SNAP.

Preventing SNAP fraud is always in the news

A convenience store went to court in Massachusetts after being accused of trafficking SNAP benefits, and lost. It is worth reading the opinion to learn more about how the USDA identifies potential fraud through statistical analysis of transaction data, and how the burden of proof is placed on the store, rather than the USDA, to demonstrate that there is no wrongdoing. Components of the statistical analysis included how a small number of households made many transactions in a short time period, how similar stores (selected apparently by their close proximity and similar inventories) did not have any of these transactions, how large the transactions were (“72% higher than an average transaction conducted at a convenience store in Essex County”, p.12).

And to combat this, the FY 2024 SNAP Fraud Framework Implementation Grant opened for state submissions this month.

More and more mobile applications are making EBT payments accessible.

SNAP clickbait articles are everywhere, especially around payment distribution times.

The worst offenders include Marca.com, La Grada, AS, and Tododisca. These articles clog up any serious news stories, and I am curious as to whether they are truly helpful to individuals. I will occasionally see local news outlets report on this but not close to the frequency of the websites listed above.

To combat this, and to automate this process a bit more, I am putting together a ML classifier that categorizes articles picked up by a Google Alerts RSS feed by whether they are high quality SNAP benefits related news articles or analysis or not, then feeding them to a links website. The Google Alerts RSS feed also brings in many non-SNAP related articles that just use the word “snap”, so parsing those out would help a lot.