- Author: Brianna Aguayo Villalon
- Editor: Richard Pulvera
- Editor: Wendi Gosliner
Safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP nationally and CalFresh in California, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, commonly known as EITC, provides great benefits to families facing economic hardship and food insecurity. However, participation in these programs was lower in California compared to the national average. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers examined the associations of participation in SNAP and receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit with perceptions of government, welfare stigma, and discrimination among families in California with low incomes. Researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey and interviews involving 497 caregivers of young children in California between August 2020 and May 2021. Study results highlighted that SNAP participants and EITC recipients had greater perceptions of social stigma compared to eligible non-participants in these programs in the beginning of the pandemic. Further, SNAP was associated with program stigma and experiences of discrimination among food-insecure participants. This study suggests that reducing stigma related to safety net program participation is important, and policymakers should consider initiatives to improve messaging and outreach that may help. The study was recently published in the Health Affairs Scholar journal. This study was conducted by Nutrition Policy Institute researchers Richard Pulvera and Wendi Gosliner, along with Kaitlyn Jackson and Rita Hamad of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Lia Fernald with the School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley.
Virtually all San Diego County CalFresh participants (known as SNAP nationwide) have been receiving monthly text messages in multiple languages encouraging them to eat more fruits and vegetables and directing them to a dedicated multilingual website with more information. The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency may be the first SNAP administering agency in the US to use text messages to share nutrition information and promote a healthy diet. This effort began in 2020 in partnership with the University of California, Nutrition Policy Institute and the UC San Diego Center for Community Health. Building on previous survey results, UC researchers conducted focus groups in English and Spanish with text message recipients to elicit their experience of the messages. CalFresh participants reported overwhelmingly positive perceptions of the effort, including increased fruit and vegetable intake, trying unfamiliar produce items, improved perceptions of CalFresh, and feelings that the agency cares about their health and well-being. Participants want the effort to continue with more frequent messages. Text messaging participants is a relatively low-cost approach that SNAP agencies can use to encourage diet improvement, optimization of food dollars, and to enhance perceptions of and experiences with SNAP. Focus group results were published in the journal Nutrients by Celeste Felix, Ron Strochlic, and Wendi Gosliner from the Nutrition Policy Institute, Blanca Melendrez and Shanna Wright from the UC San Diego Center for Community Health, and Hao Teng from Teachers College, Colombia University.
