Changes in SNAP participation and food expenditures for households with children during the pandemic
Key Points
- Impact statement: Understanding how SNAP changes influence household food spending helps policymakers assess whether program adjustments achieve their intended goals.
- A large number of households with children joined SNAP in the early stages of the pandemic, because of either changes in the program or changes in financial circumstances.
- For existing and new SNAP households with children, expenditures on foods and beverages increased substantially, which could have been due to the shift from foods purchased in restaurants and at other food-service venues (food-away-from-home [FAFH] sources) to foods purchased at retail stores (food-at-home [FAH] sources). However, a portion of the increase can likely be attributed to the increase in SNAP benefits and the receipt of pandemic electronic benefit transfer (P-EBT) payments to replace school meals.
- Many households with children that appeared to be eligible based on their incomes did not participate even with the program changes, suggesting that barriers remain.
- Additional research is needed to determine the best ways to enroll some of the most at-risk types of households with children and encourage use of benefits to purchase healthier foods to increase both food and nutrition security.
Abstract
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), provides food benefits to low-income families so they can afford to purchase more nutritious food in retail stores. Despite the benefits of SNAP for reducing poverty and food insecurity, many eligible participants do not participate. Changes in SNAP at the beginning of the pandemic had immediate effects on existing participants but also provided incentives for new participants to join. Known barriers to participating in SNAP were lifted during the pandemic, including simplifying enrollment and changing how allotment amounts are calculated. We explore the characteristics of households with children that joined SNAP after substantial changes were made to the program in the early stages of the pandemic and how it affected their food purchases. We used household-based scanner data for 2019 and 2020 to assess demographic characteristics and food purchase expenditures by participation status. Program changes during the pandemic were successful in increasing enrollment for households with children and increasing food and beverage expenditures, but additional research is needed on how to encourage enrollment among the most at-risk households to increase food and nutrition security.
© 2026 RTI International. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
