"Reconstructing SNAP to More Effectively Alleviate Food Insecurity in the U.S."

Craig Gundersen, Soybean Industry Endowed Professor in Agricultural Strategy in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, will present "Reconstructing SNAP to More Effectively Alleviate Food Insecurity in the U.S." on Friday, December 2nd from 1:00-2:30PM in Room 241, Campbell Hall.

The central objective of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is to reduce food insecurity in low income households in the United States. Yet, the majority of SNAP households with children are food insecure. One way to enable more of these households to be food secure is to provide higher benefit levels. To identify the extra benefits that would be needed, we use a question taken from the Current Population Survey (CPS) that asks respondents how much additional money they would need to be food secure. Based on the resulting responses, we propose changes in the benefit formula which would lead to declines from 51% to 59% with costs ranging from $11 billion to $16 billion. While these potential increases in SNAP would be non-trivial, the costs should be weighed against the potential benefits of reductions in food insecurity, especially for health care expenditures.

This seminar is co-hosted by The Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and The Department of Consumer Sciences in the College of Education and Human Ecology.

This event is open to the public. RSVPs are not required.