“Churning” in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is defined as when a household exits SNAP and then re-enters the program within 4 months. Churning is a policy concern due to the financial and administrative burden incurred by both SNAP households and State agencies that administer SNAP. This study explores the circumstances of churning in SNAP by determining the rates and patterns of churn, examining the causes of caseload churn, and calculating costs of churn to both participants and administering agencies in six States.
This study describes the characteristics, circumstances, and participation and income dynamics of zero-income SNAP households and seeks to assess whether economic and policy changes may have affected this growth.
This study was undertaken to understand why some SNAP participants shop at farmers markets and others in the same geographic area do not.
The final evaluation report presents findings on the impacts of HIP on fruit and vegetable consumption and spending, the processes involved in implementation and operating HIP, impacts on stakeholders, and the costs associated with the pilot.
This report is the latest in a series of annual reports presenting information on national participation rates among people eligible for program benefits. In 2012, SNAP served 83 percent of all eligible individuals, and the program provided 96 percent of the benefits that all eligible individuals could receive.
This study developed innovative approaches to using nutrition labeling systems to incentivize healthy food choices by SNAP participants in retail settings. The approaches consider opportunities for using Front of Package and shelf labeling systems across all food categories and retail settings.
In 2009, Congress authorized and funded pilot projects to test approaches to facilitate access to SNAP among two underserved populations: the elderly and the working poor. The Michigan and Pennsylvania pilots successfully increased access to SNAP among the elderly. No significant impacts on access were found in the other four states.
SNAP is designed to reduce hunger – reduced food intake or disrupted eating patterns in a household due to lack of money or other resources – but data quantifying this effect is limited. The objectives of this study were to: Assess how food access and food expenditures vary with SNAP participation.
This report is meant to be the first systematic study of the roles different organizations play in designing and implementing SNAP based incentive programs, how they choose markets for their programs, and how they evaluate success of their programs.
This report is the latest in a series on SNAP participation rates, which measure the proportion of people eligible for benefits under federal income and asset rules who actually participate. The report presents participation rates for fiscal year 2011 and revised participation rates for FY 2010 using FY 2011 methodology. The program served 79 percent of all eligible individuals in FY 2011.