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Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a critical program that helps reduce the risk of food insecurity, yet little is known about how SNAP addresses the needs of rural, food-insecure residents in the United States (U.S.). This study examines how rural, food-insecure residents perce...

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Autores principales: Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey, Hardison-Moody, Annie, Patton-Lopez, Megan, Prewitt, T. Elaine, Byker Shanks, Carmen, Andress, Lauri, Osborne, Isabel, Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7504226/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32887328
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176390
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author Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey
Hardison-Moody, Annie
Patton-Lopez, Megan
Prewitt, T. Elaine
Byker Shanks, Carmen
Andress, Lauri
Osborne, Isabel
Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie
author_facet Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey
Hardison-Moody, Annie
Patton-Lopez, Megan
Prewitt, T. Elaine
Byker Shanks, Carmen
Andress, Lauri
Osborne, Isabel
Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie
author_sort Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey
collection PubMed
description The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a critical program that helps reduce the risk of food insecurity, yet little is known about how SNAP addresses the needs of rural, food-insecure residents in the United States (U.S.). This study examines how rural, food-insecure residents perceive SNAP. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 153 individuals living in six diverse rural regions of Arkansas, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia. SNAP was described as a crucial stop-gap program, keeping families from experiencing persistent food insecurity, making food dollars stretch when the family budget is tight, and helping them purchase healthier foods. For many rural residents interviewed, SNAP was viewed in a largely positive light. In efforts to continue improving SNAP, particularly in light of its relevance during and post-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, policymakers must be aware of rural families’ perceptions of SNAP. Specific improvements may include increased transparency regarding funding formulas, budgeting and nutrition education for recipients, effective training to improve customer service, connections among social service agencies within a community, and increased availability of automation to streamline application processes.
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spelling pubmed-75042262020-09-24 Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey Hardison-Moody, Annie Patton-Lopez, Megan Prewitt, T. Elaine Byker Shanks, Carmen Andress, Lauri Osborne, Isabel Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a critical program that helps reduce the risk of food insecurity, yet little is known about how SNAP addresses the needs of rural, food-insecure residents in the United States (U.S.). This study examines how rural, food-insecure residents perceive SNAP. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 153 individuals living in six diverse rural regions of Arkansas, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia. SNAP was described as a crucial stop-gap program, keeping families from experiencing persistent food insecurity, making food dollars stretch when the family budget is tight, and helping them purchase healthier foods. For many rural residents interviewed, SNAP was viewed in a largely positive light. In efforts to continue improving SNAP, particularly in light of its relevance during and post-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, policymakers must be aware of rural families’ perceptions of SNAP. Specific improvements may include increased transparency regarding funding formulas, budgeting and nutrition education for recipients, effective training to improve customer service, connections among social service agencies within a community, and increased availability of automation to streamline application processes. MDPI 2020-09-02 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7504226/ /pubmed/32887328 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176390 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey
Hardison-Moody, Annie
Patton-Lopez, Megan
Prewitt, T. Elaine
Byker Shanks, Carmen
Andress, Lauri
Osborne, Isabel
Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie
Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study
title Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study
title_full Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study
title_short Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families’ Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study
title_sort examining rural food-insecure families’ perceptions of the supplemental nutrition assistance program: a qualitative study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7504226/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32887328
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176390
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