Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The nominal value of SNAP benefits is fixed across 48 states, but variation in food prices across geographic areas is dramatic, and therefore the real value of SNAP benefits varies widely across the U.S. A crucial question for policymakers is the extent to which this variation in (real) benefit generosity impacts SNAP recipients’ health and wellbeing.

Our research uses new evidence on the significant geographic variation in the purchasing power of SNAP benefits to estimate the relationship between benefit adequacy and the nutritional quality of food purchased by SNAP households. To measure SNAP benefit purchasing power, we rely on our previous work, which uses the FoodAPS-GC data to compare SNAP benefits to the estimated cost of the TFP in each respondent’s county, as well as at the stores at which each respondent shops (Bronchetti, Christensen, and Hansen, 2015). To measure healthful food purchases, we utilize the USDA’s Healthy Eating Index score. We also investigate the quantity and percentages of spending on foods such as fruits and vegetables and sugar sweetened beverages; and spending on food at home versus food away from home