This study examines how the policies that determine benefit levels for the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program compare to current low-income spending patterns by analyzing the expenditures of low-income households across the United States in 2013 and 2014.

Trafficking of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits occurs when SNAP recipients sell their benefits for cash to food retailers, often at a discount. Although trafficking does not increase costs to the federal government, it is a diversion of program benefits from their intended purpose of helping low-income families access a nutritious diet. This report, the latest in a series of periodic analyses, provides estimates of the extent of trafficking during the period 2012 through 2014.

This study develops standard methodologies that might be used to construct standard utility allowances, which are used by States as part of the SNAP eligibility and benefit determination.

This study reports on a project launched in 2010 to pilot and evaluate innovative strategies to reduce SNAP participation barriers for low-income elderly by leveraging new data-sharing requirements related to Medicare assistance programs that help pay for prescription drugs or Medicare premiums. SNAP accesses the medical assistance program data and contacts those individuals that appear SNAP eligible. Grants were awarded to New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

“Churning” in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is defined as when a household exits SNAP and then re-enters the program within 4 months. Churning is a policy concern due to the financial and administrative burden incurred by both SNAP households and State agencies that administer SNAP. This study explores the circumstances of churning in SNAP by determining the rates and patterns of churn, examining the causes of caseload churn, and calculating costs of churn to both participants and administering agencies in six States.

The final evaluation report presents findings on the impacts of HIP on fruit and vegetable consumption and spending, the processes involved in implementation and operating HIP, impacts on stakeholders, and the costs associated with the pilot.

This report is meant to be the first systematic study of the roles different organizations play in designing and implementing SNAP based incentive programs, how they choose markets for their programs, and how they evaluate success of their programs.

This report is an exploratory study intended to add to the growing body of knowledge about how states are modernizing their programs by focusing specifically on how they monitor and measure the success of discrete aspects of their initiatives.

As the time for reauthorization of SNAP again approaches, it is useful to take stock of its accomplishments, identify those features that have contributed to its success, and look for new opportunities to strengthen operations to achieve program goals more fully. To that end, this is a summary of past research on program operations and outcomes.

This report presents the findings of the formative research undertaken to understand the current operations of nine farmers markets purposely selected by FNS to capture geography, market size, urban city, and variation in participation in nutrition assistance programs.