A newly published study shows that online purchase of groceries purchased under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) helps low-income people in food deserts—but very little in rural areas.
The 2014 Farm Bill funded a pilot program that allowed SNAP beneficiaries in eight states to buy groceries online and have them delivered; the 2018 Farm Bill made the program national. The researchers, whose study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, sought to quantify the potential effect of SNAP delivery in rural and urban food deserts.
The study looked at 1,191 urban census tracts and 59 rural census tracts defined as food deserts (the definitions for rural and urban food deserts are different); 1,108 (93 percent) of the urban tracts were fully able to access online grocery purchase and delivery, but none of the rural tracts were; 18 were partially able to access it. Among the remaining urban tracts, 13 (1.1%) were partially able to access online purchase and delivery, and 70 (5.9%) were unable to access it.
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