The new normal: the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP).

摘要

This paper examines how the "new normal", characterized by elevated unemployment and food price inflation, has affected the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The SNAP caseload has grown rapidly during the recent financial crisis and recession, setting a new record every month since mid-2008. New estimates in this paper indicate that SNAP now plays a larger role than ever before in the overall US food economy: in 2010, for the first time ever, SNAP benefits were responsible for more than one tenth of all food-at-home spending in the USA.