This policy brief will cover a policy regarding food security called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as SNAP. This brief will discuss the issues dealing with this policy and some changes that we can make in order to improve the quality of service it can offer as well as the target audience this policy can apply to.
Food security is an important policy topic because this is one of the necessities of human well being and if there are some families, or even individuals, in our community who are unable to supply this need, there should be a way that the government can help out or assist them so they can live lives of well being. People should care because all individuals play into a community. If there are some individuals or groups of people who are suffering or not meeting the standards to a life of well being, this can not only bring down the quality of the community, but can also result in many consequences and negative behavior. In order to avoid or prevent this, people should be aware of what consists of their communities, and policymakers and influencers should also be aware of why this can affect more than just the subject himself/herself. In terms of the research that I looked further into, the main goal was to see how beneficial SNAP really was not only to the individuals but also to the community and economy as a whole.  The overall findings showed that this program was very beneficial in many ways. Specifically, one aspect I want to highlight is how the economy is benefitting from this program. The SNAP dollar directly goes to the consumer and the consumer then goes to use this SNAP dollar to purchase goods, bringing more money and flow into the economy. This research proved that $1 in SNAP benefits generates about $1.70 into economic activity, and this research also provides information that SNAP benefits brought in about $3.0 billion into specifically Illinois’ economy in 2016. This highlights a lot of benefits and the research shows how impactful SNAP is and how much it not only helps individuals and families but also how it is bringing more flow into the economy. However, another aspect of this research shows that around 40% of the families receiving benefits are working families. This implies that more than 50% of the people receiving benefits are unemployed, meaning that majority people receiving benefits are of poor households. This leads me to question if we as a community and state should be more concerned about the mass amount of poor families in Illinois. Is this healthy for our overall government nationally? If not, what more is there that we can do to change this and help uplift these groups?
Some more facts concerning this research and the benefit receivers include 65% of SNAP benefit receivers are in families with children and 28% are in families with members who are elderly or have disabilities. This research also provides more in-depth data: 11.1% of households were food insecure, or struggled to afford nutritionally adequate diet, the medium income was 3.7% below the 2007 level after adjusting inflation, 13.6% of the population lived below the poverty line, 18.9% of children lived below the poverty line, and 8.5% of eligible workers participated. So, although the economy may be benefitting from this program, we can see that there are still so many individuals and families who suffer from food insecurity and are unable to provide many needs for themselves and for families.
The conclusion is that even though the economy may be generating smoothly with this food assistance program, families and individuals are still strongly struggling and there must be more ways for us, as community members and perhaps even policy makers and influencers, to help and do more to provide different resources.
As a student with limited knowledge and resources, the best proactive challenge I can give is for you, readers, to get up and go to your community to do outreach. Go to your nearest church or charity center and ask them what are some ways that you might be able to help out in. The most I can do is to donate, whether it be money or food or other goods, and hope for the resource centers to use what I offer for the bigger picture and greater effect.