SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot Reduced Food Insufficiency Among Low-Income Households During Early Pandemic

• Published in: Amber waves 2024-04, p.1-5
• Main Authors: Jones, Jordan W, Jones, Kyle, Leschewski, Andrea M, Melo, Grace
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Agricultural policy; Annual reports; Censuses; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Dietary supplements; Disease control; Economic research; Economics; Farms; Food; Food availability; Food security; Food service; Food stamps; Government agencies; Government aid; Groceries; Grocery industry; Households; Internet; Legislation; Nutrition; Nutrition programs; Pandemics; Purchasing; Surveys
• ISSN: 1545-8741; 1545-875X

The USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutritionassistance-program-snap/) Online Purchasing Pilot (OPP) allows households to use their benefits to buy groceries online from participating SNAP-authorized retailers. Originally authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill, the OPP was intended to test the feasibility of online benefit redemption with a few pilot retailers in a few States in 2019 and 2020 before being implemented nationwide as required by the 2018 Farm Bill. In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the USDA, Food and Nutrition Service rapidly expanded the pilot to additional States. By the end of September 2020, online SNAP purchasing was available in 45 States and Washington, DC. Previous USDA, Economic Research Service (EPS) reports examined the State-level expansion of the OPP (https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pubdetails/?pubid=101908) and the initial growth in online redemptions during the pandemic (https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=ioo8i9).The OPP helped address unprecedented barriers to food access during the pandemic, such as restrictions implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing. To better understand the impacts of online SNAP purchasing during the critical early period of the pandemic, a team of researchers from ERS and three academic institutions examined how the staggered State-level rollout of the OPP affected low-income households. Specifically, the researchers focused on the rollout period from April through July 2020 and estimated the OPP's impacts on the prevalence of food insufficiency (https://ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutritionassistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/measurement/#insufficiency), which means a household reports they had not had enough to eat "sometimes" or "often" during the past week.The researchers used data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, which was created in collaboration with multiple Federal agencies, including EPS. The Household Pulse Survey continuously collects information on household experiences and well-being, including food insufficiency. The researchers used information on the weeks in which households were surveyed and on State of residence to determine whether a household resided in a State with access to online purchasing through the OPP. Then, they examined the impact of access to online SNAP purchasing on household food insuffi