Food assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, exist to meet the nutritional needs of people with food insecurity. However, stigma surrounding these programs and their recipients is widespread. 

At the Tuesday APHA 2024 session “Social, Cultural, and Political Factors Affecting Food and Nutrition” Gabrielle Young shared insights on how perceptions of deservingness affect views on food assistance. 

A person is holding a blue shopping basket on their left arm while selecting choosing an orange pepper in a grocery store aisle. Based at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, the Feeding MI Families initiative has explored how individuals with food insecurity understand the concept of deserving support. 

Over the past three years, the research team has surveyed nearly 1,300 parents from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Battle Creek and various rural areas across the state. Of the participants, 92% were female, 43% were Black, 37% white and 15% Hispanic.

In the survey responses, participants expressed beliefs about the “deserving” and “worthiness” of food assistance among parents experiencing food insufficiency. Income levels and employment status created common dividing lines. 

Participants receiving food assistance often emphasized that they were employed and therefore deserving of support.

“It’s just frustrating when people who are actually working are not able to get help that they actually need versus people who don’t work or don’t make the effort,” said one FMF participant. 

Those who were ineligible for assistance due to higher incomes felt that they were equally, if not more, deserving of help compared to those who were unemployed.

“I’m not making all this crazy amount of money, and the income level is just… I think it needs to be looked at and changed,” said another FMF participant.

“There’s a lot of people like me who are making just a little bit above it, and so we’re struggling.”

Nationwide, almost 13% — or 41.9 million Americans — receive SNAP benefits, according to a 2023 analysis by Pew Research Center. Over 60% of SNAP recipients were not employed in the surveyed year, and about 46% of children lived in a mother-only household. 

Food is a human right; all are deserving to be fed, Young told the crowded room. 

The research team concluded that the current national discourse on food assistance carries problematic implications about who is deemed deserving of support. It emphasized the need for public health to advocate for food as a fundamental human right.

Photo by Michael Burrows, courtesy Pexels.