Eating Enough and Healthy?: Perspectives on SNAP and SNAP Access Among Low-Income Families with Young Children

Background and Purpose: Approximately one in four families with children lives in a precarious state of near-poverty, defined here as earning too much from employment or other sources to qualify for many public assistance programs, yet not enough to be food secure. This “working poor” state is nebulous but appears to be widespread, and disproportionately affects Black families in the U.S. Many such families count on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to provide a much-needed boost to their incomes every year. However, many EITC-eligible families do not realize that they may also qualify for food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As part of a larger project aimed at increasing SNAP uptake among this population, we wanted to better understand the household food needs of EITC-eligible families with young children, whether they were able to access SNAP and what, if any, barriers they faced in doing so.

Methods: The data reported here are drawn from the qualitative substudy of a larger research project testing a policy innovation aimed at increasing SNAP participation among 100 low-income, working families with young children. A convenience sample of 20 heads-of-household who participated in the larger project took part in structured interviews about their household food needs, food security, and SNAP access. Ten interviews took place in fall 2022 and ten additional in summer 2023, after the emergency declaration that temporarily expanded SNAP benefits expired. Interviews were conducted via Zoom, recorded, and professionally transcribed. We analyzed each transcript for content to identify overarching themes that could help contextualize the food security status of households with young children before and after expanded SNAP benefits expired, as well as benefits and barriers to SNAP access overall.

Results: We identified two major themes from our review: 1) SNAP benefits are helpful, but too low, and 2) Access is cumbersome for intermittent users. Participants receiving SNAP were grateful for the assistance, but struggled month after month to put healthy food on the table. Participants undertook multiple strategies to keep their children fed – including forgoing their own meals and visiting food pantries. A common refrain was that any raise in pay from work would be immediately offset by a reduction in the SNAP allowance. Moreover, participants dreaded the expiration of pandemic benefits expansion, which mitigated rising food costs. While longtime users of SNAP were familiar with the lengthy process required for frequent recertifications, new and intermittent users found accessing SNAP difficult due to paperwork, transportation, and discomfort with the online application system.

Conclusions and Implications: The policy implications here are many, foremost being: families were helped tremendously during the pandemic due to emergency authorizations expanding SNAP benefits. Continuing, and expanding, these programs could be life-changing for many, and social workers (as practitioners and as professional body) must advocate tirelessly for increasing the benefit allowance and streamlining the application process. These small steps could help ensure greater food security for low-income families with young children.