The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation’s largest nutrition program, helping 41 million participants afford “nutritious foods essential for health and well-being.”
But a new study from the University of Notre Dame found that SNAP participants in low-income households may not meet the nutritional levels set by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).
The case study set out to examine whether SNAP participants could afford a healthy diet based on the DGA’s recommended nutritional values. The DGA was created by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health, and Human Services to advise Americans on what they should eat and drink to meet their nutritional needs, promote health, and prevent disease.
“Healthy nutrition is a critical issue, especially in low-income communities where economic and geographic constraints make healthy, affordable foods less accessible,” said Nitesh Chawla, Director of the Lucy Institute for Family Data and Society and Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame. “Individuals working under these restrictions live in a food desert and must consider many factors when making decisions about feeding their families.”
The research team primarily used the maximum SNAP allotment available for a single person in Indiana as of October 2021, which is $250 per month. They divided this amount by day to determine what a person’s daily budget would be. The team then created a linear programming model that took into account product nutrition and price for items available at a nationwide grocery chain in South Bend.
“We found that people were essentially making compromises based on the information they had to stretch their funds and maximize nutrition,” said Ronald Metoyer, professor of computer science and engineering and vice president and associate provost for teaching and learning. “Our idea in this study was to use computation to bring together all the relevant information (e.g., inventory, prices, and nutritional content) and use optimization to make those choices.”
The researchers took into account the cost per serving of a meal and the different dietary guidelines for men and women ages 31 to 50, while also minimizing the cost of the diet as much as possible. Although they found that it was possible to create a realistic women’s diet that fit the monetary allocation of SNAP and the nutritional needs of the DGA, it was not possible to do the same for men.
The team also analyzed the balance between cost and nutritional value, especially for nutrients like sodium, saturated fat and added sugar, which Americans tend to overconsume. To do this, they set aside the DGA’s parameters and selected only the cheapest food options that would meet the SNAP budget. Researchers found a direct relationship between sodium and cost; As the cost of groceries decreases, the amount of sodium consumed increases.
The researchers also noted that the most difficult DGA parameters to meet in a SNAP budget are daily vitamin and mineral intake needs.
“We found that vitamins and minerals are really hard to fit into the dietary guidelines,” said Joe Germino, a doctoral student in the Lucy Institute’s DIAL Laboratory who is supervised by Chawla. “You have to make an informed decision to find food items that are cheap enough and actually fit your budget. “This adds another layer of complexity to an already difficult problem when living in a food desert.”
Census data, St. It identified 11 areas in St. Joseph County that could be described as food deserts, or where significant numbers of people live more than a mile from the nearest supermarket. Residents living in and around the area need to consider transportation access as well as distance to full-service grocery stores to purchase healthy food.
These barriers are even more difficult to overcome for low-income households; This can create greater dependence on alternative food sources such as food pantries. Although the per capita budget for SNAP recipients has increased since this study was conducted, due to other economic constraints such as inflation, researchers believe the results still hold true today for those who rely on SNAP support.
“The reason we chose South Bend is because we have areas that are considered food deserts, and we see a lack of access to food in our own community,” said Annalisa Szymanski, a Lucy Graduate Scholar who is advised by Metoyer. author of the study.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Big Data, is just one way Notre Dame researchers are using technology to combat national challenges like food access and insecurity through the Food Information Networks (FINS) project. Led by Metoyer, FINS is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The project aims to comprehensively understand barriers to accessing healthy food, develop technological supports, and deploy and study interventions in South Bend and Detroit.
The project will result in an app that uses optimization methods to suggest and recommend healthier food items to people based on their nutritional goals and budget. In the spring, researchers will pilot a version of the app in Rum Village, a neighborhood in South Bend. The aim is to test the application to see how this solution helps overcome transportation restrictions. The pilot will partner with local Walmart grocery stores.
“Through the pilot, we are testing whether we offer different recommendations for healthier food products in the app; will this affect the way people eat? What if they know there is a healthier product on sale?” “We want to see how this technology can realistically impact eating habits, considering both nutritional goals and budget,” said Szymanski.
Researchers are also exploring how the FINS project could leverage artificial intelligence, such as large language models, to create personalized dietary recommendations.
To contact: Brandi Wampler, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-2632, brandiwampler@nd.edu