SNAP Program Design: Implications for Participants and Policy

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as Food Stamps), provides low-income households with cash-like vouchers to purchase food. SNAP is a major anti-poverty program in the United States, and its design and recent policy changes may affect participants in various ways. SNAP benefits, set nationally, are distributed once-monthly, leading to within-month resource instability, with potential consequences for participating households as resources run low at the end of a benefit month. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law in July 2025, made multiple, dramatic changes to the SNAP program, particularly in expanding work requirements and increasing states’ role and costs in administering and funding the program. However, how recent cuts to the SNAP program included in the OBBBA and state variation in SNAP benefit purchasing power and distribution timing affect the households, retailers, and others involved in the SNAP program are not well understood. 

The four papers in this interdisciplinary panel offer multiple perspectives on how SNAP policy design and performance affect participants – both households and participating retailers – with important implications for federal and state policy. The authors use a variety of data sources and rigorous methods to draw policy-relevant conclusions, representing the fields of public policy, sociology, economics, and developmental psychology. The first paper by Cisneros examines how SNAP benefits affect time use, exploiting geographic variation in the cost of living with national time diary data. In the second paper, Morrissey and colleagues investigate how the monthly timing of SNAP benefit distribution, which varies by state, affects students’ math and reading test scores. They use restricted student-level national data, and investigate heterogeneity by test type and student grade. The third paper by Parke and colleagues estimates how the 2025 cuts to the SNAP program included in the OBBBA affect households, retailers, and manufacturers participating in the program. In the final paper, Heflin and colleagues examine SNAP performance metrics over time and geography, with important implications for understanding the effects of the OBBBA’s use of these metrics in SNAP funding moving forward. Together, the findings from these papers have implications for SNAP policies across multiple levels and for different types of program participants, from households to food manufacturers. The papers’ methods examine and exploit state variation in policies and program design, directly speaking to APPAM’s 2026 theme of state policy variations and impacts. 

Our two discussants, Tracy Vericker and Irma Arteaga, will provide complementary insights. Vericker is the Federal Nutrition Area Director at Mathematica Policy Research and a former policy analyst at USDA. Arteaga is an associate professor at the Truman School of Government Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, with expertise in economics and the consequences of childhood investments over the life course. Our chair, James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky, is an expert in food insecurity and food policy. Together, they will provide timely insights into how the papers inform SNAP policies and future research.

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Chair

• James P. Ziliak, University of Kentucky

Discussants

• Tracy Vericker, Mathematica

• Irma Arteaga, University of Missouri-Columbia

Organizer

• Taryn W. Morrissey, American University

Individual Presentations

• SNAP Purchasing Power and Household Time Allocation: Evidence from Geographic Variation in Food Prices - Presenting Author: Georgina Cisneros, American University

• SNAP Distribution Schedules and Student Standardized Test Score Performance - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Daniel P. Miller, Boston University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Taryn W. Morrissey, American University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Madeleine Maylath, American University; Presenting Author: Sruti Mohanty, Boston University

• Where Does It Sting?: The 2025 SNAP Cuts Disaggregated by Stakeholder and State - Presenting Author: Parke E. Wilde, Tufts University

• State Variation in SNAP Performance: Trade-offs and Drivers Across Accuracy, Access, and Timeliness - Presenting Author: Colleen M Heflin, Syracuse University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Michele Ver Ploeg; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Hyeryung Jo, Syracuse University