The Effect of Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Food Insecurity of Children in U.S. Immigrant Households

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) plays an integral role in reducing children’s food insecurity. However, little is known about its effect on food insecurity of children in U.S. immigrant households, who are more likely to be food insecure and less likely to take advantage of SNAP. I addressed this knowledge gap by analyzing data from the 2010 to 2016 Current Population Survey-Food Security Supplement using the switching regression model. The results indicated that SNAP reduced the probability of food insecurity among children in U.S. immigrant and nonimmigrant households by 23.3 and 21.0 percentage points, respectively. Therefore, SNAP was more successful in reducing children’s food insecurity in immigrant households compared with nonimmigrant households.