SNAP Nutrition Security Act: Organizational sign-on letter

Dear Senators Stabenow, Boozman, Schumer and McConnell and Representatives Thompson, Scott, McHenry, and Jeffries,

We the undersigned organizations, including members of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA), urge you to co-sponsor the SNAP Nutrition Security Act of 2023 (S.2326 / H.R.4909). For the first time, this bill will generate data needed to determine how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) impacts nutrition security and how the program can improve access to nutritious food. Importantly, this bill does not change what SNAP recipients can buy, nor does it impose purchase restrictions.

SNAP is a powerful food safety net program with many positive public health impacts; the program helps to reduce poverty, health care expenditures, the risk of chronic diseases later in life, and food insecurity.

Food security is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” USDA has a highly developed system for monitoring the extent and severity of food insecurity in U.S. households through regular data collection and annual reports.  

There is a growing interest in additionally evaluating SNAP participants’ ability to specifically acquire healthy food. This is related to the concept of “nutrition security” which USDA defines as “consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being.” The American Heart Association defines it as “having equitable and stable availability, access, affordability, and utilization of foods and beverages that promote well-being and prevent and treat disease.” Nutrition security is closely related to yet distinct from food security. Nutrition security builds on food security by emphasizing the coexistence of hunger and diet-related chronic disease that disproportionately impacts individuals with low incomes.  

Both nutrition security and food security are critically important measures for understanding SNAP’s positive impact, identifying ways to reduce hunger and chronic disease disparities, and determining how to effectively improve access to healthy foods.

The SNAP Nutrition Security Act of 2023 would:

1. Define diet quality.

  • The bill separately defines “diet quality,” a distinct term referring to meeting key recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, from nutrition security.

2. Measure and annually report on nutrition security and diet quality, as USDA currently does for food security.

  • This legislation would add nutrition security to USDA’s existing and annual food security reporting. Separately, the bill requires reporting on diet quality. Currently USDA does not provide consistent data or reporting on either of these measures.  

3. Add food and nutrition security reporting to annual state SNAP-Ed reports.

  • The bill adds reporting on food and nutrition security to state SNAP Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program (SNAP-Ed) reports to help states determine how to improve food and nutrition security. Currently, annual SNAP-Ed reports do not include data on nutrition security nor food security status since metrics are still being established.  

4. Collect and report every four years de-identified national and state sales data.

  • The legislation would collect data to understand and subsequently strengthen the impact of SNAP. The last time USDA did a study on SNAP sales was in 2014, with 2011 data from one leading grocery retailer, making known data out of date and incomplete.
  • Sales data would be de-identified to protect the identity of both SNAP participants and retailers. This report would give insight into the affordability of foods, the timing of purchases within a monthly benefit issuance cycle, and the types of products typically purchased overall, in-person and online. Knowing when certain foods are purchased and what kinds of food are being purchased can help inform opportunities to improve food and nutrition security. For example, data on fruit and vegetable purchases may be used to inform the need for incentive programs.

5. Add improving nutrition security and diet quality to Congress’s declaration of policy for SNAP.

  • The bill provides Congressional rationale specific for nutrition security and diet quality for the program.

The bipartisan bill S.2326/ H.R.4909 will provide the data needed to improve access to nutritious food and strengthen SNAP, our largest food safety net program. We thank Senators Cory Booker and Marco Rubio and Representatives Gottheimer and Chavez-DeRemer for investing in tools to inform future approaches to mitigate chronic disease disparities. We urge you to co-sponsor S.2326/ H.R.4909 and to advocate for its inclusion in the 2023 farm bill. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jacob Multer (jmulter@cspinet.org) or Kristy Anderson (kanderson@aha.org).

Sincerely,

Action for Healthy Kids
American Heart Association
Association of State Public Health Nutritionists
Balanced
Bipartisan Policy Center
Center for Science in the Public Interest
ChangeLab Solutions
Colorado Children's Campaign
Farm to Table - New Mexico
Hunger Free America
International Fresh Produce Association
Jump IN for Healthy Kids
Mission: Readiness
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
Nemours Children's Health
Nutrition Policy Initiative at Tufts University
Real Food for Kids
Society of Behavioral Medicine

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