Food Insufficiency, Food Stamp Participation, and Mental Health

Abstract

Th is study examines the ways in which enrollment in the food stamp program affects the mental health status of enrollees. The results find that the negative mental health effects associated with food insufficiency are higher among food stamp participants than nonparticipants. It is estimated that 35.1 million people lived in food-insecure households (Nord, Andrews, and Carlson, 2006) in 2005. Th is means that at some point in the previous year, due to scarce household resources, these families were unable to acquire enough food or were uncertain of having enough food to meet their basic needs. Food insuffi ciency is defined as not having enough to eat periodically over the previous 12 months and is a more severe level of food insecurity. This study examines food insufficiency, rather than food insecurity, due to its relation to food expenditures, and nutritional intake (Basiotis, 1992; Cristofar and Basiotis, 1992).