Food

How Cutting Food Stamps Can Add Costs Elsewhere


The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is similar to SNAP, but as its name suggests, it provides nutritional support only for low-income mothers and their young children. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the prevalence of obesity declined from 2010 to 2016 among toddlers receiving WIC benefits. Experts suggest this may be a result of policy changes in 2009 made to better align WIC food packages with current nutritional and clinical guidelines.

For additional help, people often turn to local food pantries, like those that partner with the Greater Boston Food Bank. Research suggests food pantries are also effective at providing immediate relief. They have far fewer eligibility requirements than SNAP or WIC — sometimes none — but limit when and how often clients can receive food. Some pantries are even on college campuses, helping the almost 40 percent of college students who report struggling to afford food.

Food pantries also serve as a community entry point for a variety of initiatives, including cooking and nutrition classes.

A review of 12 pilot pantry-based programs found these could improve participants’ nutritional knowledge and diet. One of the interventions studied a novel approach to food pantry design that allows clients to choose their own food and take part in monthly nutritional goal setting. Three months in, participants were less likely than those using a traditional food pantry to experience severe food insecurity. A year later, they were eating more fruits and vegetables.

Food pantries can also connect people to the health care system, particularly for diabetes diagnosis and management. Feeding America, a national network of 200 food banks, estimates one-third of the households who use their affiliated food pantries have a member with diabetes.

One study — conducted within Feeding America’s network — randomly assigned almost 600 food pantry clients with diabetes into a pantry-based diabetes management pilot program. About 75 percent of participants struggled with food insecurity. The intervention group received diabetes-tailored food boxes, blood sugar monitoring, a primary care referral if needed and diabetes self-management counseling. After six months, those in the intervention group experienced less food insecurity and were eating more fruits and vegetables. There was no significant clinical improvement related to their diabetes, suggesting that, while food pantries are a good start, further study is needed on how to best marry community intervention and the health care system.

While such interventions can help, they are not long-term solutions, nor do they address underlying problems, like food deserts (communities where healthy food is hard to find) and food swamps (those where unhealthy food abounds). We eat what’s available and affordable, even if that’s bad food.



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