Forthcoming study from UNE researchers evaluates impact of SNAP benefits during COVID-19 pandemic
When COVID-19 hit, grocery store shelves emptied and economic uncertainty spread — and for the nearly 42 million Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federal government responded by temporarily boosting their benefits. Now, new research co-authored by a University of New England public health expert examines how those changes actually played out in people's kitchens and shopping carts.
The study, "SNAP Decisions: Qualitative Research on the Perceived Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic and SNAP Benefit Changes on Food Purchases," that will be published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (JAND) in September 2026 drew on in-depth virtual interviews with 47 SNAP participants in northern New England and New York and found that six distinct themes emerged, all of them underscoring what the authors said are critical indicators of SNAP’s influence on food security and access.
Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.H.S., professor of public health and director of Public Health Research and Strategy at UNE is co-senior author. She was joined on the study by UNE research associate Jessica Eller of the Center for Public Health and Practice, who was a second author on the paper.
“Our research highlights the lived experience of national food policy changes and speaks to the importance of protecting food and nutrition security given the high rates of chronic diseases in the U.S.,” said Polacsek, a faculty member in the David Evans Shaw Institute for Public and Planetary Health, which focuses on research at the intersection of human and planetary health.
The research team found that, when SNAP benefits increased during the pandemic, participants reported improved food security and broader food choices. When those increases were reversed, the opposite happened: Participants said their food security worsened, and their choices narrowed leaving a diversity of needs unmet.
The research also tracked shifts in shopping behavior over the arc of the pandemic and found that post-pandemic economic pressures, including inflation, continued to squeeze food choices even after the public health emergency had passed.
The findings carry clear policy implications, the researchers wrote, concluding that SNAP benefits improve food security and dietary choices, but that benefit levels alone aren't enough; participants' food decisions are shaped by rising food costs, access to affordable healthy options, and other individual circumstances.
The article will be available through ScienceDirect upon publication in September 2026.