This report examines patterns of SNAP benefit redemption in fiscal year 2017 and compares those patterns with findings from two similar studies conducted for fiscal years 2003 and 2009.
The SNAP E&T pilot projects give Congress, USDA, and states the opportunity to test innovative strategies and approaches that connect low-income households to good paying jobs and thereby reduce their reliance on public assistance.
Section 4022 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized and funded the SNAP E&T pilots, which enabled the USDA Food and Nutrition Service and states to expand SNAP E&T programs and test innovative strategies to connect SNAP participants with good-paying jobs, thereby increasing their incomes and reducing the need for nutrition assistance benefits. This is the fifth annual report to Congress.
The evaluation examined the impact of a $30 per child per month benefit on reducing child, adult and household hunger relative to a $60 monthly benefit. It found that the $30 benefit was as effective in reducing the most severe category of hunger among children during the summer as the $60 benefit.
This study describes the characteristics, circumstances, and participation and income dynamics of zero-income SNAP households and seeks to assess whether economic and policy changes may have affected this growth.
This study was undertaken to understand why some SNAP participants shop at farmers markets and others in the same geographic area do not.
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 study developed innovative approaches to using nutrition labeling systems to incentivize healthy food choices by SNAP participants in retail settings. The approaches consider opportunities for using Front of Package and shelf labeling systems across all food categories and retail settings.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act directed USDA to study the extent to which school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs pay indirect costs to local education agencies. It specifically requested an assessment of the methodologies used to establish indirect costs, the types and amounts of indirect costs that are charged and not charged to the school foodservice account, and the types and amounts of indirect costs recovered by LEAs.
Describe how participants redeem their food stamp benefits (including the number and types of stores frequented by typical clients, the timing and amount of purchases during the month, the frequency of benefit exhaustion, and the amount of benefits carried over into following months). And, identify redemption patterns across groups and analyze differences in redemption and shopping patterns if such exist.