The Other Half: An Examination of Monthly Food Pantry Cycles in the Context of <scp>SNAP</scp> Benefits

Byrne, Anne T.; Just, David R.

doi:10.1002/aepp.13150

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…To that end, pantry value may be even more heterogeneous than our results suggest and may be different for those with major barriers not detected in our data. Furthermore, although these pantries may provide great benefit to clients, they may be a second best option when compared to public benefits such as SNAP, even among those who use both services (Byrne & Just, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is free food worth? A nonmarket valuation approach to estimating the welfare effects of food pantry services

Byrne

Just

2022

American J Agri Economics

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Food pantries provide groceries to millions of households in the United States every year. Although there is research and information on many other aspects of food pantries, including financial information such as tax valuations for donated food, there is not a literature establishing the economic value of food pantry access for clients and potential clients. We use a valuation approach from environmental economics, revealed preference travel cost modeling, in a novel application to estimate food pantry value. We use a rich administrative dataset from a food bank system in Colorado and estimate demand for pantry visits, exploiting the move of a local pantry to correct for endogeneity bias. We find that the annual value of pantry access to pantry client households is between $600 and $1000, and the value per pantry visit is between $40 and $60. If we assume these values hold nationally, our localized results imply that the collective value of food pantry access among pantry client households may be between $19 billion and $28 billion dollars annually.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is free food worth? A nonmarket valuation approach to estimating the welfare effects of food pantry services

Byrne

Just

2022

American J Agri Economics

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“…Stigma is one hypothesized cause for food insecure people's avoidance of food pantries (for examples of such claims in popular media, see Brewis & Wutch, 2019; Daniels, 2020). There is evidence that food pantries are not the first choice among those in need, as evidenced in Byrne and Just (2021) who find that the SNAP‐eligible population in a network of food pantries had reduced visitation during the weeks of the month when they likely still had SNAP benefits to spend.…”

Section: Food Pantry Stigma and Defining “Product Stigma”mentioning

confidence: 99%

But it came from a food pantry: Product stigma and quality perceptions of food pantry offerings

Byrne

Just

Barrett

2023

Agricultural Economics

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Among the millions of food insecure people in high income countries, only a modest fraction uses food pantries. Stigma is commonly cited as a barrier to use and may arise due to the perceived low product quality of pantry offerings. This study tests the hypothesis that “product stigma” is present among prospective pantry clients. In an online experimental survey of low‐income respondents, we ask participants to evaluate food items under four different treatments. In a two‐by‐two randomized design, in one dimension they are told the food is from a grocery store or from a food pantry, and in the other dimension they are or are not provided with photos of the food items, in some cases indicating a popular brand. The study finds that respondents exhibit a negative perception of the quality of food from a pantry, but that perception is largely offset when they are shown an informative visual depiction of that food. The effect of brand information is explored in a second online experimental survey and found to be an important component of consumer perception, partly mitigating the product stigma effect of food pantry offerings, but less so than a photo does. Results suggest that food banks and food pantries may combat product stigma through marketing that uses photos, brand names, or both to depict the quality of the products they offer. Such interventions may encourage current users to visit more frequently and needy non‐users to visit at all.

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“…While several studies examine the impact of income transfers on food hardship or insecurity, far fewer examine the relationship between income and use of emergency food assistance or how income changes affect use of these services. However, studies have examined how the number of visitors to food pantries falls off around the time that SNAP benefits are delivered (Byrne & Just, 2021;Fan et al, 2021), with one study (Mabli & Worthington, 2014) estimating a 5.7 p.p. reduction in food pantry use.…”

Section: Materials Hardshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although several studies have examined the impact of income transfers on food hardship or insecurity, far fewer examine the relationship between income and use of emergency food assistance or how income changes affect use of these services. However, studies have examined how the number of visitors to food pantries falls off around the time that SNAP benefits are delivered (Byrne and Just 2021; Fan et al 2021), with one study (Mabli and Worthington 2014) estimating a 5.7 percentage point reduction in food pantry use. These studies suggest that receipt of income transfers through SNAP may reduce need for emergency food assistance, though to our knowledge, studies to date have not examined changes in pantry use associated with cash-based transfers or with the monthly CTC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of the 2021 Monthly Child Tax Credit on Child and Family Well-Being: Evidence from New York City

Collyer

Gandhi

Garfinkel

et al. 2022

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

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The temporary monthly child tax credit implemented in 2021 had the potential to affect many aspects of child and family well-being, including poverty, hardship, use of food pantries, spending on child-related items, and parents’ mental health and employment. The authors assess these effects using data from two longitudinal studies of well-being in New York City. They find that the monthly child tax credit led to significant declines in the risk for facing material hardship, multiple hardships, running out of money, and using food pantries. The authors do not find evidence of significant changes in parents’ mental health, employment, or spending on childcare or enrichment activities.

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The Other Half: An Examination of Monthly Food Pantry Cycles in the Context of SNAP Benefits

Abstract: This study contributes to the growing literature on household resource allocation across time by examining monthly cycles of food pantry visitation. This study uses 13 years of data from over 40,000 households who

Cited by 21 publications

References 32 publications

What is free food worth? A nonmarket valuation approach to estimating the welfare effects of food pantry services

What is free food worth? A nonmarket valuation approach to estimating the welfare effects of food pantry services

But it came from a food pantry: Product stigma and quality perceptions of food pantry offerings

The Effects of the 2021 Monthly Child Tax Credit on Child and Family Well-Being: Evidence from New York City

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