By Tomiko Townley,
Older Adult & SNAP Outreach Manager
Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps Arkansas families put food on the table, but we know now that it accomplishes much more than that.

Research increasingly shows that SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps, can ward against the long-term effects on children of experiencing poverty, abuse or neglect, parental substance abuse or mental illness, and exposure to violence — events that can take a toll on their well-being as adults.  As a new Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds, SNAP helps form a strong foundation of health and well-being for low-income children by lifting millions of families out of poverty, improving food security, and helping improve health and academic achievement with long-lasting consequences.  It’s doing that all across Arkansas.

SNAP is improving our children’s futures.

SNAP delivers more nutrition assistance to low-income children than any other anti-hunger program.  In 2016, SNAP will help about 20 million children each month — about one in four U.S. children — while providing about $30 billion in nutrition benefits for children over the course of the year.  In Arkansas 46% of SNAP recipients are under the age of 18, or 1 in every 3 kids.

SNAP is helping to give thousands of Arkansas children the foundation they need to succeed.  Efforts to reform or enhance it should build on its effectiveness in protecting the well-being of our children — and those nationwide — and preserve the essential program features that contribute to that success.

Sources:

http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-works-for-americas-children
http://census.gov/data/tables/2016/demo/income-poverty/p60-256.html
Arkansas state level monthly SNAP participation data