CEEWB: The Future of SNAP

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Center for Employment and Economic Well-Being: The Future of SNAP – A Modern and Responsive Program

OVERVIEW AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES

APHSA’s Pathways initiative, our member-driven principles and proposals for a more effective and results-focused human services system, calls for sustainable and meaningful outcomes for individuals and families focused on achieving gainful employment and independence, stronger and healthier families, adults, and communities, and sustained well-being of children and youth. The strength and health of those who come to human services rest on a broad continuum of widely available conditions and resources as well as individual and family capacities and abilities. These include the means to access proper nutrition, and federal nutrition programs play multiple and important roles in supporting this result. As the largest and most widely available of these federal programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has served to significantly alleviate hunger for many decades and in turn greatly enhance individual, family and the nation’s well-being. SNAP is highly responsive to economic conditions. In times of economic distress, more people become eligible for the program and more people receive benefits—as evidenced by the substantial increase in enrollment and spending during the Great Recession. SNAP also helps poor communities during economic downturns by bringing additional federal dollars into the local economy. SNAP caseloads and spending also fluctuate with economic conditions as demonstrated by USDA-FNS data, having reached a high of 47.6 million individuals in 2013 with benefits of just over $76 million. As of 2016, recipients and costs declined to 44.2 million recipients at a cost of $66.6 billion and are expected to remain on a decline as the economy improves. This ebb and

flow of participants and costs based on economic circumstances is the key to SNAP’s effectiveness. SNAP also reaches over 80 percent of those who are eligible for benefits. 1 SNAP is also a highly effective work support program and its benefits lifted 10.3 million households including 4.9 million children out of poverty in 2012. 2 SNAP was reauthorized with the farm bill enacted in 2014 and will expire September 30, 2018. The reauthorization process is expected to begin in 2017 and culminate either as part of the farm bill reauthorization in 2018 or as separate legislation that might occur sooner. Reauthorization presents the opportunity to take stock of the program at a foundational level. Significant improvements can be considered that will enable the program to more fully realize its potential to reduce food insecurity and enhance economic independence by serving the nutrition needs of the low-income population. APHSA and its members have identified the following core principles for SNAP that must underpin the program’s modernization and its associated administrative and regulatory rules: • Nutrition is a key support that is typically separate in structure and administration, yet plays a direct and vital role in building health and capacity. SNAP can be far more effective if it is integrated into the larger framework of health and human service programs so that it supports and aligns with critically important health and wellness outcomes. • SNAP has contributed significantly to reducing need and to providing important bridge supports for those affected by job loss

1 USDA Food and Nutrition Service. (March 2017). SNAP Program Participation and Costs. Accessible at https://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/ SNAPsummary.pdf. 2 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (October 2016). Snap Lifts Millions of Kids Out of Poverty. Accessible at http://www.cbpp.org/blog/snap-lifts- millions-of-kids-out-of-poverty.