Historic SNAP Update Will Mean Better Nutrition, Less Hardship for Maryland Families

Families across Maryland will have an easier time putting healthy food on the table starting this October, thanks to a long-overdue reform to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). The Biden administration in mid-August unveiled the first comprehensive reexamination since the 1970s of the dietary standards that determine the program’s benefit levels. The updated standards will help thousands of families across Maryland put food on the table, with especially significant benefits for children, Marylanders of color, and Marylanders with disabilities. The reform is expected to increase Marylanders’ total annual benefits by nearly $350 million, bringing a potential economic boost of $500 million or more.

For decades, the federal government has used a backwards process for updating the SNAP benefit levels:

• Benefit levels are based on the so-called Thrifty Food Plan, a theoretical weekly grocery list intended to meet nutritional requirements at minimal cost.
• This plan does not determine what foods families are allowed to purchase using SNAP benefits, but defines assumptions about the kinds of food purchases SNAP participants will make, which are then fed into a mathematical model.
• Rather than determine the true cost of a healthy, balanced diet, the government historically defined the total cost at the start based on inflation adjustments and worked backward to a mix of foods that would theoretically meet nutritional requirements without exceeding this arbitrary cap.

Instead, this illogical process produced an unbalanced, nutritionally inadequate plan with little resemblance to the way real families eat:

• The current Thrifty Food Plan envisions a family of four consuming 40 pounds of milk and yogurt over the course of a week, or about five 32-ounce tubs of yogurt per person. Meanwhile, the plan includes about seven eggs (not quite two per person, per week) and two ounces of cheese.
• The current plan does not meet basic nutrition standards. For example, consumption of less than the recommended daily allowance for vitamin E is built into the plan. The plan also deviates from the federal government’s recommendations for sodium and potassium consumption.
• The plan has failed to evolve as nutritional science has advanced and dietary recommendations have changed. To stay within its arbitrary cost constraint, the plan includes few of the red, yellow, and green vegetables the USDA today considers central to a balanced diet. The resulting reliance on foods like dairy, grains, and beans is especially problematic for people with medical, religious, or other dietary restrictions.
• The current plan unrealistically stretches dollars by assuming that families living on low incomes have unlimited time to shop and prepare food. The resulting reliance on low-cost, high-effort ingredients doesn’t work for someone caring for kids or juggling multiple low-wage jobs to get by.

The updated plan—based on an actual analysis of the cost of a healthy diet in 2021—will be used to set SNAP benefit levels beginning this October. The plan more closely matches current nutritional science by including a wider array of fruits and vegetables and assumes families will sometimes buy items like frozen vegetables and canned beans to save time in the kitchen. The result is a more realistic framework for calculating the real-world cost of putting food on the table. The increase in benefits is modest—about $36 per person, per month, in added grocery money—but meaningful. The federal government estimates that the update will increase SNAP benefits in Maryland by $349 million, or about 27%, in the next federal budget year.

The update will make a difference for many families who currently participate in SNAP but still can’t afford enough food or who have enough to eat but not necessarily a balanced, nutritional diet that matches their needs and preferences:

• 326,000 Maryland adults reported using SNAP benefits to pay for household expenses between June 9 and July 5, 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Seven in 10 adults in Maryland who use SNAP to pay for household expenses are caring for children (232,000 adults).
• 51,000 Maryland adults who use SNAP to pay for household expenses report that they nevertheless sometimes or often do not have enough to eat. This includes 30,000 adults caring for children.
• 10% of women in Maryland use SNAP to pay for household expenses, compared to 4% of men.
• 11% of adult Marylanders of color rely on SNAP, compared to only 4% of white adults. Just over half of Maryland adults using SNAP to cover household expenses are Black (13% of all Black adults).
• 36% of Maryland adults with annual household income under $25,000 use SNAP to get by, plus 17% of those with income between $25,000 and $49,999.
• 130,000 Maryland adults who are currently employed use SNAP, as do 42,000 Marylanders with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• SNAP is a particularly important resource for Marylanders with disabilities. More than one-third of Maryland adults who are blind or report having “a lot of difficulty” seeing use SNAP, as do one-fifth of adult Marylanders with significant hearing, cognitive, or mobility disabilities.
• Many of the same groups most likely to rely on SNAP are also more likely than other Marylanders to struggle to afford enough food. While 7% of Maryland adults overall sometimes or often don’t have enough to eat, this includes 10% of Black adults, 11% of Latinx adults, 26% of adults with income below $25,000, and 33% of workers who aren’t currently employed because of a pandemic-related layoff or furlough.

The impact of fixing SNAP will be far-reaching:

• Research shows that SNAP helps protect children from nutritional deficiencies and health problems and helps them succeed in school. Down the road, kids who benefit from SNAP can expect better long-term health, a better chance of finishing high school or going to college, and more success in the labor market as a result.
• Current, insufficient SNAP benefits leave many families struggling to afford food near the end of the month—or even in the middle—after they exhaust benefits received at the beginning of the month. Research links this hunger cycle to increased academic struggles near the end of the month for kids benefiting from SNAP.
• Increasing benefit levels is especially urgent in high-cost areas—including large portions of Maryland—where housing and other costs squeeze families’ grocery budgets. One in four Maryland adults who use SNAP to pay for household expenses were behind on their mortgage or rent in June 2021, compared to one in 10 adults overall (among survey respondents reporting whether they own or rent their home).
• A study the USDA published during the Trump administration found that each $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.54 in economic activity, as families’ increased purchasing ripples out to local businesses, their suppliers, and their employees. Based on this estimate, $349 million in additional SNAP benefits in Maryland could boost the economy by as much as $537 million. (Some of this economic boost would flow to other states—especially those with large agricultural sectors—while Maryland would see some boost from increased benefits in other states.)

To learn more about how SNAP benefits Maryland communities and how we can build on this progress to ensure every Marylander has enough to eat, check out Maryland Hunger Solutions.