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Increased food insufficiency after COVID-era SNAP emergency allotments expired: A quasi-experimental study Whitney Wells* Whitney Wells Kaitlyn Jackson Cindy W. Leung Rita Hamad
In response to economic distress and food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Congress expanded the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by introducing Emergency Allotments (EAs) to increase monthly benefits starting in March 2020. In March 2023, EAs expired in the 35 states/territories still providing them. We provide some of the first evidence of the impacts of this loss of nutrition support—in some cases over $250/month—for economically disadvantaged households.
We examined the effects of SNAP EA expiration on food insufficiency, mental health, and financial well-being, using data from the US Census Household Pulse Survey. In difference-in-differences analyses, we compared pre-post differences among SNAP participants to pre-post differences among SNAP-eligible non-participants. We also examined subgroup effects by race/ethnicity and income.
The SNAP EA expiration led to a substantial increase in food insufficiency (8.4 percentage points; 95%CI: 5.5, 11.3). Black SNAP participants experienced a greater increase in anxiety symptoms (0.47; 95%CI: 0.13, 0.80) compared with White SNAP participants (-0.06; 95%CI: -0.25, -0.13) (p=0.01).
This study has implications for ongoing policymaking with respect to US nutrition and safety net programs to support vulnerable families, especially amidst inflated food prices.
