John: The five-year farm bill is working its way through congress. The $1.5 trillion measure covers a sweeping set of agricultural and food policies covering everything from crop insurance to conservation programs. As Ali rogin reports, one major sticking point this year is funding for the federal program that helps low-income people buy food. Ali: The legislative package known as the farm bill is moving slowly through the house, in part because of party-line disagreement over the supplemental nutrition assistance program, or snap, formerly known as food stamps. It's a federal program that addresses hunger by helping people with low-incomes buy food. But an analysis by the urban institute, a left-leaning research organization, found that snap benefits in 2023 did not cover the rising cost of groceries in 98% of U.S. Counties. Elaine Waxman is a senior fellow at the urban institute and is one of the report's authors. Thank you for being here. Tell us about snap and how levels. Are set. Elaine: Absolutely. Snap is the first line of defense we have in federal and nutrition programs to address food insecurity, and we have a solid evidence base that suggests that not only improves food outcomes but reduces poverty, provides economic benefits to the economy and may reduce health care expenditures. So it is really vital. It provides monthly benefits and they are set according to a market basket of goods that the government refers to as the thrifty food plan. That food plan, the assumptions underneath it, haven't been updated for decades until 2021. There was some improvement in snap adequacy then, but we have lost background. As he said, it does not cover the cost of a moderately priced meal, and most U.S. Cabinets. Ali: How great was the disparity? You mentioned the gap had gotten smaller for a little while, but now it is way back up to a very disproportionate level. How to get there? Elaine: Sure. So after the adjustment in 2021, we actually saw that the benefits were adequate to the price of moderate meal in all about one and five in the U.S., so for a short-term, we had a significant number effects. We had a number of shifts in terms that even though snap is updated for inflation, it hasn't been sufficient because the underlying benefit is an adequate to purchase a meal that would be meaningful in terms of health and nutrition. So where we are at now after a couple of cost-of-living increases is really just about back where we started before that original update happened in 2021. Ali: Where are the parts of the country where the disparities are the greatest? Elaine: Some of the counties with the greatest disparities are not surprising to us, like in New York or on the coasts. But in the top five counties with the largest, some are actually rural counties, like in Michigan, Idaho, Massachusetts. These are all places that are more rural and have higher transportation costs and tend to be near first locations and that drives up food prices. Ali: We mentioned the congressional debate underway. Walk us through that. Elaine: Sure. The biggest point debate around snap has been on a requirement that was put in place in 2018 by congress in the last bill, and that requires the snap benefit to be updated or reviewed at least every five years. But people were not expecting the size of the update in 2021, and that has caused some conflicts. So the current house bill that was passed out of committee this week calls for a freeze on snap benefits going forward. So they will be updated for inflation, but we will not have the ability to act on any infringements and nutritional guidance in the ways that people are purchasing and preparing food. We started with it inadequately, so as a result, the estimate is that it reduces snap costs over time and the inadequacy problem will get worse, and what does that mean? It is already insufficient in the majority of counties, but that gap will grow. Ali: In terms of the snap program more generally, studies show that participation in the snap program is associated with lower nutritional quality with the food and household, poor health in children, is that an issue with snap or some of the other underlying factors that might indicate why a family or household needs snap benefits? Elaine: Great question. The fact of the matter is we look at the patterns of purchases between people who are on snap and people who have low incomes that are not on snap, but they don't have significant differences. The truth of the matter is that as a country, we don't eat very well. If you are stretching a budget on a low income, we tend to go for things that are cheap and calorie dense as opposed to things that are perishable and better for us, but are a bigger risk in terms of purchases. So what we are seeing is choices that people have to make because they do not have sufficient funds for food. The other thing is that we are noting is we have an epidemic of diabetes and diet sensitive conditions in this country. Those are not confined to people with low income who are participating in snap. That covers across the income continuum, so that is a larger issue that we need to deal with. Ali: Elaine Waxman is a senior fellow at the urban institute . Thank you for joining us. Elaine: Thank you for inviting me. ♪♪
