Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper is part of a larger project designed to advance the existing knowledge on patterns of food assistance receipt and the effects of that assistance over the life cycle. We will use confidential data sets that match New York state administrative records to federal survey data, allowing us to compare and contrast the role of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the lives of younger and older adults. SNAP is available to people of all ages, and is currently the largest public assistance program in the U.S. at around $70 billion per year. The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) has provided the US Census Bureau with administrative records on individuals participating in SNAP and other programs from 2007 onward, and these data are linked to respondents in the American Community Survey (ACS), Current Population Survey (CPS), and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

Our contribution in the young adult context will add to the small but growing literature indicating the prevalence of food insecurity among young adults, and particularly those in college. Recent research studying small samples of college students suggest that food access and sufficiency is a problem among lower-income students whose educational expenses cut into food budgets (Maroto, 2013; Pia Chaparro et al., 2009; Gaines et al., 2012; Patton-Lopez et al., 2014). These studies indicate particular challenges for minority students and those who live off-campus; food concerns thus seem to be particularly salient for lower-income, first-generation college students who may have previously relied upon household SNAP benefits for food assistance. Our work proposes to explore the ways in which long-term educational decisions may be related to immediate challenges in obtaining sufficient food resources.

While these studies provide interesting campus-based evidence for food insecurity on college campuses, there is no state-level evidence on this issue. Moreover, these studies all condition on a young adult having entered college, and yet one concern may be that college matriculation itself is affected by access to food. We propose to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the food assistance climate for young adults (i.e. SNAP) in the state of New York and the ways in which it may be linked to educational investment.

Our empirical approach will begin with documentation of patterns of SNAP participation in NY State among young adults aged 18 to 25. To the extent possible with the data, we will explore regional differences in access and participation across the state. We are optimistic about this approach, as adults in NY aged 18-49 without dependents have faced variation across counties in the work requirements they face (or do not face) for obtaining SNAP beyond a three-month spell. This variation has the potential to help us identify the effect of SNAP access on work and educational decisions during the early adult years.