Published April 22, 2025
Gina Plata-Nino, JD, Deputy Director of SNAP and Children’s HealthWatch
This article is part of a series exploring the wide-ranging consequences of proposed SNAP cuts. Today’s conversation is with Children’s HealthWatch, a nonprofit focused on improving children’s health in the U.S., to share insights on how these changes would affect the health and well-being of young children and their caregivers. Special thanks to Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, PhD, MPH, Richard Sheward, MPP, Ana Poblacion, PhD, MS, and Charlotte Bruce, MPH.
About Children’s HealthWatch
Children’s HealthWatch is a nonpartisan network of pediatricians, public health researchers, and policy experts dedicated to improving child health in the United States. Through real-time data collection in emergency departments and primary care clinics in four U.S. cities, we monitor the experiences of infants and toddlers from families facing economic hardship. We then analyze and share our findings to inform academic research, public policy, and community action.
What Is SNAP’s Impact on Food Insecurity?
SNAP [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] provides a crucial foundation for healthy growth and development and is one of the most effective tools we have to fight food insecurity and inadequate access to enough food. SNAP is vitally important when there are economic downturns. Designed to respond quickly in times of increased need and economic crises, increases in SNAP benefit amounts during the Great Recession of 2007–2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic helped reduce food insecurity among children and helped protect their health and development — despite high unemployment rates.
Research from Children’s HealthWatch and other researchers consistently shows that SNAP reduces food insecurity and improves child and caregiver health. It’s linked to better nutrition — including higher intake of essential nutrients like B vitamins, iron, and calcium— and lower risks of anemia, obesity, hospitalizations, and reports of child abuse or neglect. Young children in families participating in SNAP are healthier, grow better, and are more likely to develop well emotionally and academically for their age compared to their peers in likely eligible families not participating in the program.
Working in tandem with other programs to preserve family health, SNAP has a positive ripple effect. Children’s HealthWatch research has found that families participating in SNAP are more likely to be able to pay for medical expenses without forgoing basic needs like food, rent, and utilities.
Importantly, concerns that SNAP contributes to childhood obesity are not supported by evidence. In fact, school-age children who receive SNAP are less likely to be obese, often perform better academically, and have better overall health than non-recipients.
What Has Your Research Shown About SNAP Reductions and Child Health?
Using data from 2007–2015, we studied how reductions or terminations in SNAP benefits — triggered by modest income increases — affected families with children under the age of 4. We focused on economic hardships (such as food and energy insecurity, unstable housing, and forgone health or dental care), as well as caregiver and child health.
After accounting for key factors, we found that families whose benefits were cut off or reduced had a significantly higher likelihood to report both household and child food insecurity. These families were also:
- 43 percent more likely to have a caregiver in fair or poor general health
- 22 percent more likely to have a child in fair or poor general health
- 28 percent more likely to have a child at developmental risk (greater chances of developmental delays)
We also found that mothers affected by SNAP reductions were more likely to screen positive for depressive symptoms — a serious risk factor for poor early childhood development. Poor health is closely tied to increased health care usage and costs.
In a separate multi-city study, we found that among families with young children compared to those who were eligible but didn’t participate, families participating in SNAP were:
- 8 percent less likely to have a child in fair or poor general health
- 18 percent less likely to have a child at developmental risk
- 3 percent less likely to have an underweight child
- 28 percent less likely to experience household food insecurity, and 33 percent less likely to experience child food insecurity
- 27 percent less likely to report trade-offs between health needs and household expenses
These findings reinforce that SNAP improves child health, growth, and development and caregiver well-being while reducing economic strain. Increasing SNAP benefits — and adjusting them to reflect the true cost of food in different regions — would be a highly effective public health intervention.
Historical data from 1968–2009 also support SNAP’s impact. Between 1961 and 1975, when SNAP was introduced county by county, counties with the program saw a 6 percent reduction in very low birthweight births (e.g., babies born weighing less than 3 pounds, 5 ounces, or 1,500 grams), a strong indicator of improved health during pregnancy. In addition, they also found that adults whose nutrition had been supported by SNAP when they were young children were significantly less likely to develop metabolic syndrome and women were more likely to be economically self-sufficient.
Why Are You Concerned About Proposed SNAP Cuts?
If SNAP benefits are cut, food insecurity will rise and the health and well-being of young children will be harmed at a critical period of growth and development. Aside from the personal suffering of experiencing it, food insecurity drives significant and avoidable health care costs. Children and adults in food-insecure households require more health care services. When families struggle to meet basic needs like food, they often experience concurrent unstable housing and unsafe living conditions.
In 2016, Children’s HealthWatch estimated that food insecurity costs the U.S. economy over $160 billion annually in excess health care expenses. In Massachusetts alone, food- insecurity-related health costs were estimated at $2.4 billion.
Cutting SNAP would deepen hardship for families vulnerable to even small financial changes and place additional strain on health care systems. In contrast, expanding and strengthening SNAP reduces long-term public spending and improves population health, leaving us with healthier communities.
What Actions Are You Taking?
Children’s HealthWatch is committed to taking real-time data to the halls of Congress and state houses, making sure advocates are equipped with information and policymakers see the true impact of their decisions. We recently led a letter on behalf of public health experts, medical professionals, and health institutions across Massachusetts to express our deep concern about the proposed cuts. We continue to conduct rigorous research to track the impact of policy changes — both cuts and expansions — and raise awareness about the long-term developmental harm caused by food insecurity in early childhood.
SNAP is not just a nutritional support — it’s a proven, cost-effective investment in the health, stability, and future of America’s children.
