Children's Participation in Food Assistance Programs: Changes from 2001 to 2013

Background/Purpose: The Great Recession and its lingering aftereffects have raised concern about high food insecurity among children and the associated food safety net. In 2009, the food insecurity rate among children reached its highest point at 21 percent and has remained high since then. The largest food assistance (FA) programs available for school-age children are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School Lunch Program, and the School Breakfast Program. Participation in each FA program has risen since 2008 because of families’ worsening economic needs and policy changes intended to reduce administrative barriers to access the programs. SNAP policy changes in particular (e.g., expansion of broad-based categorical eligibility) have important implications for children’s access to school meal programs, as SNAP participants are automatically eligible for school meal programs. Little is known of what has changed over the past decade regarding how children access and combine FA programs and who are more likely to participate in more FA programs. This study examines changes in low-income children’s use of FA programs and explores the factors associated with those changes.

Methods: I use the 2001-2013 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data, restricting the sample of each year to school-age children between 5 and 17 years old. Although the unit of analysis is the child, this study measures program participation at the household level. This work builds on previous research by Todd et al. (2010), Newman et al. (2011) and Bartfeld (2013) using the Survey of Income and Program Participation, which explored the extent and pattern of multiple food assistance program participation among low-income children during the recent recession. This study will add to our knowledge of children’s participation in FA programs using other national survey data and highlight changes in patterns of program participation and characteristics of participants over a 13-year period.

Results: Approximately 75 percent of low-income children have participated in at least one FA program between 2009 and 20103. Between 2001 and 2003, that percentage was 65. Overall, a greater portion of children in very poor households participate in each FA program and combine more FS programs, on average, than those in poor or near poor households. However, substantial variations and changes appear in the individual-level characteristics of program participation patterns. For example, children in households classified as higher education, higher income, and more food security show over the period a dramatic increase in access to SNAP and a bundle of SNAP and school meal programs.

Conclusions and Implications: These findings are drawn from limited data in terms of measuring income and program participation. Nevertheless, my results are broadly consistent with previous research that used different data sources. The results suggest a growing connection between SNAP and school meal programs following the Great Recession. However, the slighter increase witnessed among the disadvantaged in terms of participating in separate and combined FA programs suggests policy and social work practice implications to improve food insecurity among those disadvantaged groups.