The Nov. 3 news article “With food aid frozen, uncertainty builds for Americans reliant on assistance” illustrated the intricate tasks facing policymakers under severe budget constraints. The “National Food Stamp Program Survey,” conducted in 1996 by the Agriculture Department, is one of the few databases for understanding the behavior of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients. My analysis of these data showed the importance of distinguishing between reducing food insecurity (or hunger) and improving diet quality.
While food banks can reduce hunger to a certain extent, socioeconomic factors such as timely receipts of SNAP benefits, saving money via discount coupons, reading nutrition labels, and frequent trips to grocery stores by the recipients were associated with households' diet quality. Because such habits evolve gradually over time, the political wrangling over SNAP benefits is counterproductive and is likely to hamper children's nutritional well-being and development.