Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Households living in areas of higher local food price are not only more likely to suffer food insecurity – a condition of insufficient access to food due to resource constraint – but may also be priced out of healthy food options. Although the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was found to relieve very low food security, evidence of the SNAP effect on diet quality has been mixed. Estimated effects range from modest improvement in healthy food consumption to contributing to unhealthy diet and obesity.

This study uses detailed food acquisition and purchase records and geographic indicators in the USDA’s National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) to explore how local food price is associated with food insecurity and diet quality among SNAP participants, and whether high local food price is partly responsible for the program’s inconsistent success in improving food security and nutrition. Moreover, we examine whether the effects of high food price on either food insecurity or diet quality are improved by SNAP participants’ resource management techniques.

Because high food price diminishes purchasing power, it is expected to increase food insecurity and decrease diet quality. Because demand for healthier food may be more elastic, the effect of food price on diet quality can be stronger than its effect on food insecurity, but the relative effect size is uncertain due to high living cost suspected in high food price areas.

Healthy Eating Index (HEI) scores and components are computed as a measure of diet quality using the Food-at-home nutrient file of the FoodAPS. Food security status and SNAP participation are identified from the interview files. Local cost of Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) and price of aggregate food categories from the geographic component of FoodAPS are used to identify high-cost areas. Other relevant household characteristics as well as county-, tract-, and block group-level variables are controlled for. To account for unobserved differences in lifestyle and living cost, models are estimated with geographic fixed effects. To avoid endogeneity of program participation, policy variations by state are used as instrumental variables.

Preliminary findings suggest that SNAP participants in high cost areas utilize various resource management techniques to maintain household food security, however at the expense of diet quality. Findings from this study expand understanding of how food prices at the local level impose additional challenge for the federal food assistance program in achieving its program goals, especially in improving nutrition and health among low-income individuals and families.