Viewpoint: An Assessment of Recent SNAP Benefit Increases Allowing for Money and Time Variability

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is one of the largest welfare safety nets in the United States. The purpose of SNAP is to provide low-income eligible families with sufficient funds to reach the cost of a nutritious diet. To mitigate the effects of COVID-19, the maximum SNAP benefits were temporarily increased through September 2021 by a total of 20.3%. On October 1, 2021 the maximum SNAP benefits were permanently increased by 21% from the pre-pandemic levels. A sizeable literature had shown that the pre-pandemic maximum benefit levels were insufficient to reach the full cost of a nutritious diet because individuals spent an insufficient amount of time in food production. This viewpoint considers the question: Are those increases in the maximum SNAP benefits enough to reach the full cost of a nutritious diet when we account for possible changes in home food production labor? In light of the recent pandemic-induced labor market disruptions, this research assesses the needs for additional time inputs to the pre-pandemic food production time amounts given different levels of maximum SNAP benefit adjustments in order to reach the ‘full’ cost of a nutritious diet. We evaluate the feasibility of meeting those additional time needs in the context of reallocating portions of the ‘windfall’ of time normally devoted to working and commuting before the pandemic. Focusing on single headed households we find the temporary 20.3% and the permanent 21% increase both would have to be matched by an increase of about 9 hrs per week in food production in order to reach the full cost of a nutritious diet. This increase seems very unlikely based on historical time allocation patterns. More is needed to be done to increase SNAP benefit adequacy either through further increases to benefit levels and/or through education and outreach efforts designed to improve skills of home meal preparation and time management.