What’s At Stake for Food and Nutrition Security in the Election, Part 2
Kate Marple October 30, 2024

The future of SNAP could be on the line

This is part 2 of an ongoing series about food and nutrition security. Read part 1 here.

Next week, we will elect a new President, new Congress, and many new state officials, all of whom will likely have a dramatic impact on food and nutrition policy in this country. What might change? How can we prepare to advance health equity regardless of the outcome? Where can Upstreamists make the greatest impact, even long after the votes are counted?

In part two of this series, HealthBegins brought these questions to Hannah Garelick, a health policy analyst at UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization. She reflects on the future of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the role food labeling plays in equity. (The conversation below was edited for length and clarity.)

How could the November 2024 election affect food and nutrition security?

A new Congress will have the chance to vote on several food-related bills, and what those bills include will depend on who is elected. One example is the Farm Bill, which addresses several aspects of food policy, including SNAP. Currently, there is a Republican-led House version and a Democratic-led Senate version of the bill that have not been reconciled or voted on yet. The current drafts propose several changes including:

  • Changes to SNAP benefits. The House version limits the USDA’s (U.S. Department of Agriculture) authority to adjust the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), which outlines the minimum amount of money a family needs to purchase healthy food. The TFP is used to set SNAP benefit levels. I’m really concerned about any proposal that would limit resources to SNAP and reduce the amount of food families can put on their tables. (The Congressional Budget Office estimates this change will lead to roughly $30 billion in cuts to SNAP that would affect benefits for more than 40 million people.) Alternatively, the Senate version maintains current TFP rules and investments in SNAP, and recommends that benefit levels continue to be re-evaluated every couple of years to keep up with food prices and dietary guidelines to ensure that families who use SNAP are able to afford adequate and nutritious food. What we’re not seeing in either of the frameworks right now is investments in increasing SNAP allotments. During the pandemic, we saw that increased allotments lowered food insecurity in our country. We would love more folks to be talking about increasing SNAP allotments.
  • Transitioning Puerto Rico from NAP to SNAP. Puerto Ricans are not currently eligible for SNAP. Instead, they can receive benefits from the Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), a block grant program that was replaced by SNAP in most of the country. It has more limitations than SNAP. For example, the USDA provided Disaster-SNAP (D-SNAP) to families affected by the recent hurricanes in southeastern states. NAP does not have the same flexibility, and when hurricanes have hit Puerto Rico in the past, families have been ineligible for the same emergency food support. Currently, both the House and Senate frameworks include a pathway to transition Puerto Rico to SNAP, which is something that’s really important to UnidosUS. It would end a long-standing discrimination of American citizens who are denied access to adequate food assistance. 

What steps can we take to ensure no one is disproportionately harmed by food and nutrition policy?

We need to reduce administrative barriers to SNAP and WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). These programs have been tested and they work. And right now, there’s a lot of red tape and administrative burdens that keep eligible families from participating. And it’s a lot of paperwork that families have likely already filled out when they’ve applied for Medicaid or TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or other federal programs. And there’s language access challenges too. According to our research, right now within the Latino community, more than 1.5 million pregnant women, new mothers, and infants qualify for but don’t participate in WIC, and another 6 million Latinos are eligible for SNAP but are not on it. Those are some really striking equity concerns we have with access to these programs. 

During the pandemic, SNAP benefits were increased and flexibilities were put in place around the application process, like allowing for virtual appointments and telephonic signatures. We saw hunger in our country decrease. And then we saw hunger increase again after those flexibilities and increased SNAP allotments ended. So, one of the things we think about with equity is removing administrative barriers that would ease the disproportionate number of Latinos who are not participating in these programs, but who are eligible.

Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming federal and state elections, what should Upstreamists pay attention to when it comes to food, nutrition, and equity?

Food labeling. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is currently considering adding front-of-package labels to food products. Latinos have high rates of diet-related diseases and the current back-of-package label is pretty inaccessible for many. This is especially true for those with limited English proficiency or who don’t have as many math skills to understand what a daily value is and how to proportion that into this product that you’re buying. UnidosUS sees front-of-package labeling as something that can help close the equity gap of nutrition information. It can help anyone shopping in the grocery store make quick and informed choices to buy the best food for them.

It’s also about what goes into our food. At the state level, California passed a bill requiring that corn masa flour be fortified with folic acid. It’s an important vitamin in the early stages of pregnancy for preventing neural tube defects like spina bifida. For the Latino community, corn masa flour is a staple ingredient. Many other products like wheat flour in your breads and pastas are already fortified, but corn masa is not. And there is a higher rate of neural tube defects within the Latino community. So, this is a really big step. In the meantime, UnidosUS filed a petition with the FDA that requests warning labels on all unfortified corn masa products. We think that shoppers, especially women who are thinking about having a baby, should know what is and isn’t in the food that they’re buying.

What steps should the healthcare sector prioritize to advance food and nutrition security?

I think that the healthcare sector, especially by working with community-based organizations, has a chance to open doors and help people gain access to food and nutrition programs in two ways.

  • In the short-term, they can create more on-site partnerships. We want to see more streamlining of services where you can go into a provider’s office and have your check up. And by the time you leave, you’ve also applied for WIC and you’ve been referred for a phone call to set up your benefits. Community health workers are especially powerful in doing this work. But at a systems level, folks who decide who’s placed at their office can bring some WIC agency folks into clinics and find opportunities to partner. 
  • In the long term, they can advocate for an auto-enrollment system for SNAP and WIC. We already have so much information. If folks are already enrolled in Medicaid, they almost always qualify for SNAP and WIC. And doctors know who’s pregnant, and they know the medical information that WIC needs to be able to certify their eligibility. And so, creating a system where we use health records to streamline enrollment is one way that I think healthcare professionals could work to break down silos and help people gain access to necessary resources.

What resources can help someone better understand food and nutrition policy and/or improve their work in this space?

  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s segment on school lunches. I really enjoyed engaging with this recently. He highlighted the challenges of serving millions of children healthy food every day with very limited resources. And he points out that for many kids, lunch may be their most reliable and healthiest meal every day. It was really wonderful to see this kind of specific policy highlighted on a national stage.
  • KFF Health Policy email digest. KFF is an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. They cover all areas of health policy, not just food and nutrition. They have a free, daily email digest that links to local reporting, research, and what is happening on Capitol Hill. It’s great for anyone who wants to stay up-to-date on policy work because things change so quickly. I always start my day reading it.
  • Folic Acid PSAs (on LinkedIn and Instagram). UnidosUS CEO and President Janet Murguía and HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) Secretary Xavier Becerra recorded PSAs in English and Spanish highlighting the importance of folic acid and the fortification of corn masa. It’s a really wonderful conversation about the importance of this issue.

 

For more information about UnidosUS’ health policy work, visit: unidosus.org/issues/health

For more information about the intersection between Medicaid and food, connect with the Medicaid Food Security Network: medicaidfoodsecuritynetwork.org

For ideas on how to talk to people in your life about the stakes of the election for health equity, read HealthBegins’ Election Engagement Guide.

 

Kate Marple is a Boston-based writer who specializes in helping nonprofit, health care, and legal services organizations develop practices to ensure that the stories they tell are shaped by and benefit people directly impacted by the issue(s) those stories are about. Her website is https://whotellsthestory.org. 

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