SNAP participation and the healthfulness of food purchased by households with children during the pandemic

Changes in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic included emergency benefit allotments and operation waivers. Using five expenditure-based measures of the nutritional quality of food purchases, we tested whether changes in SNAP during the first year of the pandemic were associated with better nutritional quality of food purchases by participating households with children relative to income-eligible nonparticipating households. Most nutritional quality measures declined from 2019 (pre-pandemic) to 2020 (pandemic) with larger decreases for SNAP households. SNAP participation was associated with small negative differences for nutritional quality of food purchases from stores.