How Did the Expiration of SNAP Emergency Allotments Affect Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Purchases of SNAP Households?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States government introduced various pandemic-related relief measures to support low-income households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Among these changes was the emergency allotment (EA), which provided additional benefits to help SNAP beneficiaries maintain access to essential food items during these challenging times. However, beginning in 2021, the expiration of EA, a temporary increase, led to a minimum reduction of $95 per month in benefits for program participants. This study estimates the impact of EA expiration on monthly fresh fruit and vegetable (FV) spending of SNAP households. Drawing on novel transaction-level food purchase data, we identify SNAP households based on method of payments, specifically Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card usage, which is derived from uploaded food purchase receipts rather than self-reporting. Our general research design leverages variation across states and over time due to the staggered expiration of EA payments via difference-in-differences estimators. Our findings indicate a robust negative impact on fresh FV spending following the termination of EA, with a reduction of approximately 4%, translating into a decrease of roughly $8 per month for the average SNAP household, or $2.20 per person per month. This reduction suggests that, although statistically significant, the decrease is not substantial in terms of its impact on health. Indeed, we find that fresh FV spending is highly inelastic with respect to the SNAP benefit level, and simple changes to that level are unlikely to improve diet quality among poor households, if that is a policy goal.