In the wake of the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) suspension of collection of household food insecurity data in the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS), researchers, advocates, and policymakers have debated whether participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can be used to approximate the size of the food insecure population. Even though the number of individuals receiving SNAP is similar to the number of those who are food insecure and both measures identify individuals who need assistance affording food, SNAP participation is not a valid substitute for national or state data on food insecurity status for the following reasons:

• Many SNAP households are not food insecure.
• A majority of food-insecure households are not income eligible for SNAP.
• Some food-insecure households may be income eligible for SNAP, but ineligible because of other SNAP requirements.
• SNAP-eligible households who are food insecure may not participate in SNAP.
• The timing of SNAP participation may not align with periods of food insecurity.
• SNAP participation may be underreported in surveys.

Why This Matters

The CPS-FSS is considered the gold standard for food security measurement, which is an important indicator in understanding economic hardship, nutrition, and health, and can also provide insight into the impacts of policy changes, such as how recent cuts to SNAP under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) may increase hardship. In the wake of the loss of the CPS-FSS, researchers and other stakeholders may be inclined to use intuitive data substitutes. However, the USDA measure of food insecurity already has a validated definition and scale of measurement, and cannot be replaced using proxy data points. It is critical to understand why certain data points, such as SNAP receipt, cannot be used in place of food security, as this can cause researchers to come to inaccurate and misleading conclusions.

This brief is part of a series being published under the Food Security Data Collaborative, an initiative convening researchers and practitioners interested in furthering food security measurement.