Despite the expansion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or "food stamps") benefits for college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, a staggering number of students that qualify are not signed up for the program. This is not to say that students wouldn’t benefit from this program. The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice found in a national survey that one in three college students do not have enough to eat.
This difference between eligible students and students enrolled has been coined the “SNAP Gap.” A report by Thomas Hilliard and Bryce McKibben titled Closing the College SNAP Gap estimates that 69% of eligible students are not signed up for SNAP, this is leaving billionsof dollars on the table each year.
Hilliard and McKibben use the Hope Center’s data to exemplify how the SNAP Gap impacts students; 26% of students had no knowledge of SNAP, and 55% of students had heard of SNAP but not used it. When asking why students were not signing up for the program, many students answered that they had assumed they were not eligible (77% at four-year schools and 71% at two-year schools).
Confusion surrounding eligibility is a fair complaint by students. SNAP eligibility is puzzling, mimicking a maze. To qualify as a student, the applicant must meet the requirements for everyone in the program and those specific to students. These eligibilities are interrupted and enforced differently state-to-state, though even the least stringent of these states is not doing enough to serve students. The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health notes that SNAP eligibility for college students is outdated given the current population who seek higher education.
Hillard and McKibben list suggestions for how states can be more inclusive of college students, mainly focused on the flexibility surrounding eligibility. Suggestions include expanding eligibility to the majority of community college students, students receiving funding from the Perkins Act, students with disabilities, and others. Massachusetts expanded their SNAP eligibility in 2009 to include public colleges that primarily serve students from low-income backgrounds. This means that the majority of community college students are now SNAP-eligible, significantly increasing the number of students who apply and receive SNAP.
Colleges can also play a part in closing the gap. Colleges have the ability to perform outreach to their students from low-income backgrounds and help them overcome the major obstacles: lack of knowledge of the benefit, confusion surrounding eligibility, and stigma. Using easily-obtained administrative data, colleges can send out customized emails assisting students throughout the process.
Hungry students cannot prosper like their peers while they are concerned about where their next meal is coming from. Closing the SNAP Gap in college students is the first step to addressing food insecurity on campuses.