Feature
SNAP helps Americans eat. But can it help them eat better?
Sixty years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Food Stamp Act of 1964, making formal—and permanent—a program designed to build a bridge between two groups of people: farmers who had surplus crops, and low-income people who couldn’t afford nutritious food.
It was a cornerstone of Johnson’s War on Poverty and now stands as a crucial part of the United States’s public health infrastructure. While the program, renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008, has been highly successful at reducing hunger and poverty, experts say it could do with some health-boosting updates.
The SNAP program now feeds 42 million people each month—about 13 percent of the U.S. population. Forty percent of SNAP recipients are children. Those numbers were even higher after the Great Recession, peaking in 2013 when a record 48 million people—close to one in five U.S. residents—received food stamps. Demand surged again during the pandemic.
But some researchers and advocates argue that the program should do more than help low-income people eat—it should help them eat healthier food.
“It’s not just about filling bellies,” says Sara Bleich, a public health policy professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s filling them with food that will improve their health outcomes and general wellness.”
Sign up for Harvard Public Health
Delivered to your inbox weekly.
Research suggests people who use food stamps are less healthy than people who do not. A 2021 study found SNAP recipients in low-income, urban neighborhoods ate more foods that cause inflammation—a diet linked to cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health issues—than nonrecipients who lived in the same neighborhoods.
SNAP recipients in the study also consumed fewer anti-inflammatory nutrients like fiber, beta-carotene, magnesium, and vitamin E, says Timothy Ciesielski, a study co-author and an environmental health researcher at Case Western Reserve University. The study suggested that SNAP recipients should be encouraged to eat more anti-inflammatory foods like almonds, black beans, spinach, and sweet potatoes.
Legislators have often proposed that SNAP increase limits on the types of food it can be used to buy, such as junk food. But Craig Gundersen, who co-authored a 2023 research paper on SNAP’s benefit formula, argues that the program should not oversee the food choices of recipients. “It’s not the role of the government to tell people what they can and cannot buy,” says Gundersen, an economist at Baylor University. “But people with SNAP should have information about why a food is bad for you.”
Researchers also argue that neither incentives nor mandates matter if healthy and affordable food is not easily available—for instance, in food deserts.
SNAP is expanding its online shopping capability to give recipients access to more food retailers, says Tameka Owens, the acting administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the program. That’s partly in response to a rapid increase in online shopping during the pandemic. She says about 4 million people a month now use SNAP benefits to buy food online.
The program is also working to improve recipients’ nutrition through education about healthy eating. “We want to provide the knowledge that individuals need to make healthier food choices in accordance with dietary guidelines,” Owens says.
“Along with our suite of nutrition assistance programs, I definitely do see SNAP as part of our public health infrastructure,” she says. “What we do is not just about providing these supplemental funds to help families make ends meet. It’s also making sure that individuals have the tools and resources they need to lead healthier lives.”
Harvard’s Bleich adds, however, that the food stamp program cannot resolve the thorny issues of nutrition. “There’s this tendency to put everything into this one program,” Bleich says. “But SNAP can’t solve everything.”
Perhaps the high expectations come from the program’s longevity. SNAP’s origins date back to smaller food stamp programs that began in 1939 after the Depression prompted a greater concern for the poor. Milo Perkins, the program’s first administrator, described at the time how it was motivated to solve concurrent problems: “We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and under-nourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other. We set out to find a practical way to build a bridge across that chasm.”
In those early days, food stamp recipients exchanged blue and orange government stamps for groceries, a stigmatizing display of poverty at grocery stores. Now SNAP beneficiaries make their purchases using debit cards.
The program has remained politically viable even though it has faced threats to its existence from the beginning. These threats reached a fever pitch in the 1980s after politicians, including President Ronald Reagan, conjured images of the undeserving “welfare queen,” disparaging people who received public assistance and arguing for cuts to food stamps and other programs. Lawmakers still regularly—but unsuccessfully—propose to substantially cut SNAP.
In fact, some say SNAP should expand, because not everyone who is eligible for SNAP benefits gets them. Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, studied racial and ethnic disparities among eligible households whose members got food stamps.
His 2023 study showed that among households eligible for SNAP benefits, only a fraction had enrolled: 53 percent of eligible black households, 49 percent of eligible white households, and 39 percent of eligible Hispanic households.
Only about 30 percent of SNAP-eligible people 65 and older are enrolled in the program, according to the National Council on Aging.
“Some people don’t know that they’re eligible,” Flores-Lagunes says. “Immigrants are afraid of dealing with the government. I think there needs to be more incentives to get people into the program.”
Republish this article
<p>Studies suggest people who use the program are less healthy than people who don’t.</p>
<p>Written by Leah Samuel</p>
<p>This <a rel="canonical" href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/policy-practice/food-stamps-feed-americans-but-can-they-help-them-eat-better/">article</a> originally appeared in<a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/">Harvard Public Health magazine</a>. Subscribe to their <a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/subscribe/">newsletter</a>.</p>
<p class="has-drop-cap">Sixty years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Food Stamp Act of 1964, making formal—and permanent—a program designed to build a bridge between two groups of people: farmers who had surplus crops, and low-income people who couldn’t afford nutritious food.</p>
<p>It was a cornerstone of Johnson’s <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/01/13/whos-poor-in-america-50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-a-data-portrait/">War on Poverty</a> and now stands as a crucial part of the United States’s public health infrastructure. While the program, renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2008, has been highly successful at <a href="https://www.appam.org/assets/1/7/the_effect_of_snap_on_poverty.pdf">reducing hunger and poverty</a>, experts say it could do with some health-boosting updates.</p>
<p>The SNAP program now feeds <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance/?topicId=734dae31-1bae-4db4-81d3-9a1cab76e1a3#:~:text=Participation%20in%20SNAP%20varies%20across,12.6%20percent%20of%20U.S.%20residents.">42 million people</a> each month—about <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance/?topicId=734dae31-1bae-4db4-81d3-9a1cab76e1a3#:~:text=Participation%20in%20SNAP%20varies%20across,12.6%20percent%20of%20U.S.%20residents.">13 percent</a> of the U.S. population. Forty percent of SNAP recipients are <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research/#:~:text=Lastly%2C%2037%20percent%20of%20households,and%20older%20(18%20percent).">children</a>. Those numbers were even higher after the Great Recession, peaking in 2013 when a record 48 million people—close to one in five U.S. residents—received food stamps. Demand surged again during the pandemic.</p>
<p>But some researchers and advocates argue that the program should do more than help low-income people eat—it should help them eat healthier food.</p>
<p>“It’s not just about filling bellies,” says Sara Bleich, a public health policy professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s filling them with food that will improve their health outcomes and general wellness.”</p>
<p>Research suggests people who use food stamps are less healthy than people who do not. A 2021 study found SNAP recipients in low-income, urban neighborhoods <a href="https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(21)00167-7/fulltext#seccesectitle0013">ate more foods that cause inflammation</a>—a diet linked to cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other health issues—than nonrecipients who lived in the same neighborhoods.</p>
<p>SNAP recipients in the study also consumed fewer anti-inflammatory nutrients like fiber, beta-carotene, magnesium, and vitamin E, says Timothy Ciesielski, a study co-author and an environmental health researcher at Case Western Reserve University. The study suggested that SNAP recipients should be encouraged to eat more anti-inflammatory foods like almonds, black beans, spinach, and sweet potatoes.</p>
<p>Legislators have <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/snap-benefits-update-republicans-target-junk-food-1873656">often proposed</a> that SNAP increase limits on the types of food it can be used to buy, such as <a href="https://www.rubio.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/_cache/files/ace2d304-afbe-465b-8877-eb14b98a4054/184D5BCB8512C947EF6EF435C45652C5.healthy-snap-act-elt23601.pdf">junk food</a>. But Craig Gundersen, who co-authored a <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/erevae/v51y2024i1p157-184..html">2023 research paper</a> on SNAP’s benefit formula, argues that the program should not oversee the food choices of recipients. “It’s not the role of the government to tell people what they can and cannot buy,” says Gundersen, an economist at Baylor University. “But people with SNAP should have information about why a food is bad for you.” </p>
<p>Researchers also argue that neither incentives nor mandates matter if healthy and affordable food is not easily available—for instance, in food deserts.</p>
<p>SNAP is expanding its <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/online">online shopping capability</a> to give recipients access to more food retailers, says Tameka Owens, the acting administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the program. That’s partly in response to a rapid increase in online shopping during the pandemic. She says about 4 million people a month now use SNAP benefits to buy food online.</p>
<p>The program is also working to improve recipients’ nutrition through education about healthy eating. “We want to provide the knowledge that individuals need to make healthier food choices in accordance with dietary guidelines,” Owens says.</p>
<p>“Along with our suite of nutrition assistance programs, I definitely do see SNAP as part of our public health infrastructure,” she says. “What we do is not just about providing these supplemental funds to help families make ends meet. It's also making sure that individuals have the tools and resources they need to lead healthier lives.”</p>
<p>Harvard’s Bleich adds, however, that the food stamp program cannot resolve the thorny issues of nutrition. “There’s this tendency to put everything into this one program,” Bleich says. “But SNAP can’t solve everything.” </p>
<p>Perhaps the high expectations come from the program’s longevity. SNAP’s origins date back to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/history#:~:text=1939%20%E2%80%93%20The%20First%20Food%20Stamp%20Program,-The%20idea%20for&text=The%20program%20operated%20by%20permitting,used%20to%20buy%20any%20food.">smaller food stamp programs that began in 1939</a> after the Depression prompted a greater concern for the poor. Milo Perkins, the program’s first administrator, <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/history">described</a> at the time how it was motivated to solve concurrent problems: "We got a picture of a gorge, with farm surpluses on one cliff and under-nourished city folks with outstretched hands on the other. We set out to find a practical way to build a bridge across that chasm."</p>
<p>In those early days, food stamp recipients exchanged blue and orange government stamps for groceries, a stigmatizing display of poverty at grocery stores. Now SNAP beneficiaries make their purchases using debit cards.</p>
<p>The program has remained politically viable even though it has faced threats to its existence from the beginning. These <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/04/us/food-stamps-program-it-grew-reagan-wants-cut-it-back-budget-targets.html">threats</a> reached a fever pitch in the 1980s after politicians, including President Ronald Reagan, conjured images of the undeserving “welfare queen,” disparaging people who received public assistance and arguing for cuts to food stamps and other programs. Lawmakers still regularly—but unsuccessfully—propose <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9169/text?s=7&r=57&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22%5C%22Supplemental+Nutrition+Assistance+Program%5C%22%22%7D">to substantially cut SNAP</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, some say SNAP should expand, because not everyone who is eligible for SNAP benefits gets them. Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, studied racial and ethnic disparities among eligible households whose members got food stamps.</p>
<p>His <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajae.12402">2023 study</a> showed that among households eligible for SNAP benefits, only a fraction had enrolled: 53 percent of eligible black households, 49 percent of eligible white households, and 39 percent of eligible Hispanic households.</p>
<p>Only about <a href="https://www.ncoa.org/article/nine-million-older-adults-are-not-getting-benefits-they-are-eligible-for/">30 percent</a> of SNAP-eligible people 65 and older are enrolled in the program, according to the National Council on Aging.</p>
<p class=" t-has-endmark t-has-endmark">“Some people don’t know that they’re eligible,” Flores-Lagunes says. “Immigrants are afraid of dealing with the government. I think there needs to be more incentives to get people into the program.”</p>
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-S1L5BS4DJN"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
if (typeof gtag !== "function") {function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-S1L5BS4DJN');
</script>
Republishing guidelines
We’re happy to know you’re interested in republishing one of our stories. Please follow the guidelines below, adapted from other sites, primarily ProPublica’s Steal Our Stories guidelines (we didn’t steal all of its republishing guidelines, but we stole a lot of them). We also borrowed from Undark and KFF Health News.
Timeframe: Most stories and opinion pieces on our site can be republished within 90 days of posting. An article is available for republishing if our “Republish” button appears next to the story. We follow the Creative Commons noncommercial no-derivatives license.
When republishing a Harvard Public Health story, please follow these rules and use the required acknowledgments:
- Do not edit our stories, except to reflect changes in time (for instance, “last week” may replace “yesterday”), make style updates (we use serial commas; you may choose not to), and location (we spell out state names; you may choose not to).
- Include the author’s byline.
- Include text at the top of the story that says, “This article was originally published by Harvard Public Health. You must link the words “Harvard Public Health” to the story’s original/canonical URL.
- You must preserve the links in our stories, including our newsletter sign-up language and link.
- You must use our analytics tag: a single pixel and a snippet of HTML code that allows us to monitor our story’s traffic on your site. If you utilize our “Republish” link, the code will be automatically appended at the end of the article. It occupies minimal space and will be enclosed within a standard <script> tag.
- You must set the canonical link to the original Harvard Public Health URL or otherwise ensure that canonical tags are properly implemented to indicate that HPH is the original source of the content. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
Packaging: Feel free to use our headline and deck or to craft your own headlines, subheads, and other material.
Art: You may republish editorial cartoons and photographs on stories with the “Republish” button. For illustrations or articles without the “Republish” button, please reach out to republishing@hsph.harvard.edu.
Exceptions: Stories that do not include a Republish button are either exclusive to us or governed by another collaborative agreement. Please reach out directly to the author, photographer, illustrator, or other named contributor for permission to reprint work that does not include our Republish button. Please do the same for stories published more than 90 days previously. If you have any questions, contact us at republishing@hsph.harvard.edu.
Translations: If you would like to translate our story into another language, please contact us first at republishing@hsph.harvard.edu.
Ads: It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t state or imply that donations to your organization support Harvard Public Health.
Responsibilities and restrictions: You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third-party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Harvard Public Health recognizes that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties aggregate or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
You may not republish our material wholesale or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
You may not use our work to populate a website designed to improve rankings on search engines or solely to gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
Any website on which our stories appear must include a prominent and effective way to contact the editorial team at the publication.
Social media: If your publication shares republished stories on social media, we welcome a tag. We are @PublicHealthMag on X, Threads, and Instagram, and Harvard Public Health magazine on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Questions: If you have other questions, email us at republishing@hsph.harvard.edu.
More in Policy & Practice
Why mayors should care about public health
A National Weather Service for disease?
