Document Category: Research Brief

Food Fuels Futures: Expanded SNAP Eligibility Reduces Hunger Among College Students (2024)

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services declared and continually
renewed the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration starting in March 2020. Congress and the Trump and Biden administrations authorized various adjustments in SNAP to address the massive economic and health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, during the PHE, Congress authorized two additional exemptions for college students, as well as other SNAP enhancements through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.5 SNAP eligibility was expanded to college students with low incomes who were eligible for work-study or had an expected family contribution (EFC) of $0 in the current academic year. These exemptions expired after the end of the PHE on July 1, 2023, meaning that students who met either of these criteria were no longer eligible for SNAP unless they satisfied another exemption or the work-to-eat rule. This report — informed by interviews with college students — sets forth reasons why these expansions were so vital to college students during the PHE and why decision-makers should build on these lessons and eliminate the “work-to-eat
rule” so that more college students can focus on learning rather than being distracted by hunger. Additionally, although the temporary expansions have ended, there is legislation, known as the Enhance Access to SNAP (EATS) Act, which would ensure all students with low incomes facing food insecurity could access SNAP.

Understanding higher education students’ sense of belonging: a qualitative meta-ethnographic analysis (2023)

The current literature on ‘sense of belonging’ spans a number of disciplines, with no apparent consensus on definition between these, complicated by the fact that sense of belonging is temporal and context-sensitive (such as during COVID-19). In particular, a closer look at how students define sense of belonging is needed from an up-to-date perspective to help them feel more connected to the faculty/campus and improve their wellbeing and mental health in the ‘new normal’ and ‘next normal’ post-pandemic eras. Therefore, this study explores higher education students’ sense of belonging, a concept that has not been adequately conceptualised, from their perspectives. As these perspectives are subjective, an interpretive approach is required to generate rich meanings. This study has adopted a meta-ethnographic approach to synthesise qualitative studies, which allows for comparison and synthesis of studies into a new interpretation through translations. Interpretive qualitative synthesis resulted in one higher-order concept, four main concepts, and nineteen sub-concepts that conceptualise higher education students’ understanding of sense of belonging to their universities.

Which Eligible Philadelphians Are Not Accessing Public Benefits? (2023)

Across the United States, people with low incomes, meaning those who earn less than 150 percent of the federal poverty threshold ($41,207 for a family of four in 2021), may be eligible to receive public benefits. In Philadelphia, about one-third of residents have low incomes, including more than 40 percent of the city’s Chinese and Hispanic
residents and about 40 percent of its Black residents. Meanwhile, just 18 percent of white non-Hispanic Philadelphia residents have low incomes.

The public benefit system, however, doesn’t reach every eligible group equally. To better understand which Philadelphia residents receive the public benefits they are eligible for, we used data from the American Community Survey 2017–21 five-year sample to compare the demographic makeup of Philadelphians with low incomes who reported receiving benefits with that of those who did not report receiving benefits. People are counted as receiving benefits if they are in a household where at least one person reported receiving either SNAP, SSI, TANF, or general assistance.

Although these results suggest areas for improvement in outreach and engagement, benefit receipt tends to be underreported in survey data, so these findings should not be considered a definitive analysis of who does and does not receive benefits. People may also be ineligible for benefits for various reasons, including immigration status.