SNAP work requirements are a triumph of politics over evidence

Decades of evidence reveals that work requirements for food assistance leaves people hungry and hurts the economy. But supporting them remains good politics.

Jeffalyn Johnson’s enduring commitment to equality for African American women and men was founded in her belief that increasing representation based on gender and race laid a foundation for a more equal society. Through her scholarship and her feminism, she produced tangible change on local, national, and international levels. As an academic, teacher, entrepreneur, artist, and activist, Johnson was a life-long educator and she lived by the mantra, “each one teach one.” She reinforced, in her students, a “sense of responsibility to help teach, develop…whoever you came into contact with.”

Through a post-doctoral fellowship with the American Council of Learned Societies, I served as the research manager at Hunger Free America in New York City. In this role I collaborated on a project where we conducted semi-structured interviews with people across the country who had lived experience with SNAP during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our analysis of these interviews along with a literature review was used for HFA’s policy advocacy work, including at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022. To complete this project, we conducted outreach to potential partner organizations and managed a group of volunteers and a graduate intern who completed a social work master’s degree at Columbia University. In addition to this project, we worked closely on several others policy advocacy projects with the organization including work that supported the Hunger Free Campus and HOPE Act bills.

Created to raise awareness around food insecurity issues in America, Hunger Action Month aims to get more people involved in its mission.

I explore the history behind work requirements and the SNAP program. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) retweeted the piece from the Washington Post stating, “The thousands of Minnesotans who are going to lose their access to food aren’t going to ‘learn a lesson’ – they will go hungry in one of the richest countries in the world. I’m in Congress to fight back. I won’t let cruelty win.”