Food Insecurity and SNAP Participation in Mexican Immigrant Families: The Impact of the Outreach Initiative

Neeraj Kaushal; Jane Waldfogel; Vanessa R. Wight

doi:10.1515/bejeap-2013-0083

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Food Insecurity and SNAP Participation in Mexican Immigrant Families: The Impact of the Outreach Initiative

Neeraj Kaushal , Jane Waldfogel and Vanessa R. Wight

Published/Copyright: November 16, 2013

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From the journal The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy Volume 14 Issue 1

Abstract

We study the factors associated with food insecurity and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Mexican immigrant families in the US. Estimates from analyses that control for a rich set of economic, demographic, and geographic variables show that children in Mexican immigrant families are more likely to be food insecure than children in native families, but are less likely to participate in SNAP. Further, more vulnerable groups such as the first-generation Mexican immigrant families, families in the US for less than 5 years, and families with non-citizen children – that are at a higher risk of food insecurity are the least likely to participate in SNAP. Our analysis suggests that the US Department of Agriculture outreach initiative and SNAP expansion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased SNAP participation of the mixed-status Mexican families, and there is some evidence that food insecurity declined among children in low-educated mixed status families. We do not find any evidence that the outreach and ARRA expansion increased SNAP receipt among Mexican immigrant families with only non-citizen members who are likely to be undocumented.

Appendix

Table A1

Questions for measuring food security in the food security supplement of the Current Population Survey

1	“We worried whether our food would run out before we got money to buy more.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
2	“The food that we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have money to get more.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
3	“We couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
4	In the last 12 months, did you or other adults in the household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
5	(If yes to Question 4) How often did this happen – almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months?
6	In the last 12 months, did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
7	In the last 12 months, were you ever hungry, but didn’t eat, because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
8	In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
9	In the last 12 months did you or other adults in your household ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
10	(If yes to Question 9) How often did this happen – almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months?
11	“We relied on only a few kinds of low-cost food to feed our children because we were running out of money to buy food.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
12	“We couldn’t feed our children a balanced meal, because we couldn’t afford that.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
13	“The children were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.” Was that often, sometimes, or never true for you in the last 12 months?
14	In the last 12 months, did you ever cut the size of any of the children’s meals because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
15	In the last 12 months, were the children ever hungry but you just couldn’t afford more food? (Yes/No)
16	In the last 12 months, did any of the children ever skip a meal because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)
17	(If yes to Question 16) How often did this happen – almost every month, some months but not every month, or in only 1 or 2 months?
18	In the last 12 months did any of the children ever not eat for a whole day because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)

Table A2

Estimated effects of family characteristics on food insecurity and snap receipt among first-generation Mexicans, blended-generation Mexicans, and native families (models with child fixed effects)

	Food insecurity among children		SNAP receipt
	Coefficient	s.e.	coefficient	s.e.
INR	–0.007***	0.002	–0.022***	0.002
INR * first generation	–0.021	0.016	–0.012	0.011
INR * blended generation	–0.039^ƚ	0.022	–0.037^ƚ	0.022
INR²	0.000***	0.000	0.001***	0.000
INR²* first generation	0.001	0.001	–0.000	0.000
INR²* blended generation	0.002	0.001	0.002^ƚ	0.001
Single parent	0.003	0.015	0.056***	0.013
Single * blended generation	0.013	0.173	–0.098	0.131
Single * first generation	0.076	0.085	–0.031	0.060
One parent employed PT (<35 hours), no FT	–0.005	0.010	0.050***	0.009
No employed parents	0.016	0.011	0.073***	0.011
At least one parent is disabled	0.039*	0.019	0.025	0.016
One parent employed PT * blended generation	0.073	0.063	0.039	0.070
No employed parents * blended generation	–0.131^ƚ	0.074	0.022	0.069
Parent is disabled * blended generation	–0.064	0.074	0.123	0.118
One parent employed PT * first generation	0.023	0.042	0.043	0.033
No employed parents * first generation	0.013	0.048	0.035	0.036
Parent is disabled * first generation	–0.157	0.101	–0.050	0.097
Number of children <18	–0.003	0.006	0.026***	0.005
Number of adults aged 18–64	–0.002	0.006	0.011*	0.005
Number of elderly aged 65+	–0.018	0.018	–0.007	0.017
Number of children * blended generation	–0.050	0.046	–0.010	0.048
Number of children * first generation	0.029	0.027	0.007	0.023
Number of adults * blended generation	–0.009	0.048	0.017	0.038
Number of adults * first generation	–0.016	0.021	–0.026^ƚ	0.016
Number of elderly * blended generation	–0.042	0.079	0.021	0.034
Number of elderly * first generation	0.033	0.067	–0.087	0.060
No parent completed HS	–0.018	0.029	0.013	0.026
One parent completed HS, no more	–0.000	0.014	0.004	0.012
One parent has some college, no BA	0.001	0.009	0.001	0.007
No parent completed HS * blended generation	–0.004	0.161	0.259^ƚ	0.139
One parent completed HS * blended generation	–0.042	0.139	0.138	0.104
One parent has some college * blended generation	–0.130	0.125	0.108	0.080
No parent completed HS * first generation	–0.038	0.123	–0.082	0.081
One parent completed HS * first generation	0.014	0.121	–0.089	0.070
One parent has some college * first generation	0.027	0.115	–0.120^ƚ	0.066
Housing is rented	0.014	0.011	0.017	0.011
Housing is rented * blended generation	0.118^ƚ	0.064	–0.095	0.070
Housing is rented * first generation	–0.030	0.044	–0.019	0.033
SNAP receipt	0.051***	0.012
SNAP receipt * blended generation	0.013	0.055
SNAP receipt * first generation	–0.026	0.041
Food insecurity among children			0.035***	0.008
Food insecurity among children * blended generation			0.017	0.045
Food insecurity among children * first generation			–0.023	0.021
No. of observations	130,928		130,928
No. of groups	65,465		65,465

^[1]^[2]

Table A3

Descriptive data on food insecurity among children and SNAP participation inMexican immigrant and native families

	N	% with food insecurity among children	% that participated in SNAP
All children	252,660	11.1	16.8
At least one Mexican immigrant parent	21,471	21.9	21.4
All-citizen members	4,222	16.8	19.5
Mixed-status members	16,106	22.7	23.1
All-non-citizen members	1,143	29.4	2.4
Native-born parents	231,189	9.7	16.3

^[3]

Table A4

Estimated effects of the outreach and ARRA expansion on SNAP participation and food insecurity among children in Mexican immigrant families

	Panel 1: SNAP participation			Panel 2: food insecurity
	Single-parentfamilies	Two-parent families	Low-educated families	Single-parent families	Two-parent families	Low-educated families
All-citizen Mexican immigrant families	0.010	–0.020	–0.024	0.074***	0.034*	0.035*
All-citizen Mexican immigrant families	(0.023)	(0.016)	(0.018)	(0.027)	(0.019)	(0.021)
Mixed-status Mexican immigrant families	–0.129***	–0.067***	–0.100***	0.078***	0.051***	0.066***
Mixed-status Mexican immigrant families	(0.024)	(0.013)	(0.013)	(0.023)	(0.013)	(0.013)
All-non-citizen Mexican immigrant families	–0.346***	–0.245***	–0.286***	0.071	0.128***	0.126***
All-non-citizen Mexican immigrant families	(0.044)	(0.021)	(0.020)	(0.075)	(0.045)	(0.041)
Consulate * pre-outreach * all-citizen	–0.008	–0.030	0.025	–0.043	–0.031	–0.009
Consulate * pre-outreach * all-citizen	(0.041)	(0.022)	(0.027)	(0.041)	(0.031)	(0.031)
Consulate * outreach * all-citizen	–0.033	–0.020	–0.029	–0.048	–0.025	–0.047
Consulate * outreach * all-citizen	(0.033)	(0.020)	(0.028)	(0.047)	(0.027)	(0.038)
Consulate * ARRA * all-citizen	0.015	0.002	0.002	–0.042	–0.015	–0.012
Consulate * ARRA * all-citizen	(0.042)	(0.022)	(0.029)	(0.036)	(0.026)	(0.030)
Consulate * pre-outreach * mixed-status	0.024	–0.030*	0.025	–0.030	0.018	0.011
Consulate * pre-outreach * mixed-status	(0.034)	(0.016)	(0.018)	(0.042)	(0.021)	(0.022)
Consulate * outreach * mixed-status	0.043	–0.001	0.016	–0.095***	–0.012	–0.054***
Consulate * outreach * mixed-status	(0.034)	(0.022)	(0.022)	(0.030)	(0.018)	(0.019)
Consulate * ARRA * mixed-status	0.073**	0.025	0.050**	–0.023	–0.023	–0.045**
Consulate * ARRA * mixed-status	(0.032)	(0.020)	(0.021)	(0.039)	(0.019)	(0.021)
Consulate * pre-outreach * all-non-citizen	–0.035	–0.011	0.015	0.030	–0.009	0.011
Consulate * pre-outreach * all-non-citizen	(0.051)	(0.028)	(0.030)	(0.099)	(0.061)	(0.061)
Consulate * outreach * all-non-citizen	–0.027	–0.014	–0.012	–0.055	–0.048	–0.065
Consulate * outreach * all-non-citizen	(0.061)	(0.030)	(0.030)	(0.103)	(0.065)	(0.063)
Consulate * ARRA * all-non-citizen	–0.145**	0.010	–0.049	–0.042	–0.125	–0.143*
Consulate * ARRA * all-non-citizen	(0.068)	(0.047)	(0.040)	(0.138)	(0.080)	(0.075)
N	72,911	179,749	87,336	72,911	179,749	87,336

^[4]^[5]

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1
Throughout the article, we use the term immigrant families to denote families with at least one parent born in a foreign country. We use the term native families to denote families with both parents born in the US.
2
Authors’ computation-based parents’ reports of food insecurity among children in the Current Population Survey.
3
See, for example, Alaimo, Olson, and Frongillo (2001), Casey et al. (2005), Dunifon and Kowaleski-Jones (2003), Hernandez and Jacknowitz (2009), Howard (2011), Huang, Matta Oshima, and Kim (2010), Jyoti, Frongillo, and Jones (2005), Rose-Jacobs et al. (2008), Weinreb et al. (2002), Winicki and Jemison (2003), Whitaker, Phillips, and Orzol (2006).
4
According to Passel (2005) and Hoefer, Rytina, and Campbell (2006), over 80% of non-citizens from Mexico are undocumented.
5
Passel and Cohn (2011) estimate that in 2010 there were ~11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, of which over 6.5 million were from Mexico. Further, they estimate that in 2010, there were 1 million unauthorized immigrants under age 18 in the US and 4.5 million US-born children whose parents were unauthorized. They do not provide estimates of undocumented children by country of origin.
6
During 2001–2011, 76% children in Mexican immigrant families lived in mixed citizenship status families – i.e. families with at least one US citizen and one non-citizen member (Authors’ estimates are based on Current Population Surveys – Food Security Supplement 2001–2011).
7
Information bottlenecks affect participation in other programs as well. For instance, Neidell and Waldfogel (2009) show that immigrant families are more likely to use Head Start if the program is located in their neighborhood.
8
Weigel et al. (2007) examine food insecurity in 100 migrant and seasonal farm worker households living in the US–Mexico border and find 82% of households experiencing food insecurity and 49% of them suffering from hunger. They also find that food insecure households were more likely to exhibit symptoms of depression, learning disorders, and symptoms suggestive of gastrointestinal infection; further presence of minor children and mother’s low education were highly correlated with food insecurity. In a study of Mexican origin population along the Texas border with Mexico, Sharkley, Dean, and Johnson (2011) find that 78% of participants experienced food insecurity at the household level and 62% reported child food insecurity. Kersey, Geppert, and Cutts (2005) compare a sample of young US-born children of Mexican immigrant parents with non-immigrant non-Latino children in a low-income clinic population and find that the children of Mexican immigrant parents were 13 times more likely to be hungry and 6 times more likely to be food insecure than non-immigrant non-Latino children. Chavez, Telleen, and Kim (2007) find that only 30% of the low-income food insufficient families in a Chicago Latino community, predominantly Mexican, participated in SNAP.
9
These eight states were CT, ME, MA, MN, NE, RI, WA, and WI. Seventeen states, including these eight, also started substitute programs for children and elderly among the pre-1996 arrivals.
10
See http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/ for a complete list of thresholds by year.
11
We also computed the median income of families in each income category in the March CPS and assigned that value to respondents in the corresponding income category in the December CPS-FSS. The results from preliminary logistic regressions, available upon request, indicate that the relationship between income-to-needs and food insecurity among children is very similar from the two specifications of income – median income and imputed income. We have elected to present results from the latter.
12
The CPS collects nativity information on both parents.
13
Four dummy variables indicating whether the native child is non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and other. The variables are zero for the immigrant families.
14
Based on family size and composition.
15
Inclusion of fewer lags did not alter the coefficients of interest.
16
The data on year of arrival are based on the question: “In which year did the respondent move to the U.S. permanently.” Repeat migrants may interpret it variously: some may provide the year of first entry and others the year of last entry (Jasso, Rosenzweig, and Smith 2000). Little can be done to address this problem in our data. Our findings have to be interpreted in light of it.
17
With the introduction of the new geographic codes defined by the OMB in May 2004, the concept of Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was replaced by Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA). Thus, we use MSA, Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) codes to assess proximity to a consulate office for respondents surveyed between 2001 and 2003. For respondents surveyed in 2004 and onward, we use the Metropolitan CBSA FIPS code. For the eight consulate offices not situated within a defined MSA/CBSA, we use county FIPS codes.
18
We also did the analysis replacing the consulate variable with number of Mexican consulate offices as a proportion to the Mexican immigrant population in the state and the estimated effects were similar.
19
We also conducted the analyses in Table 6 for three sub-samples: children in single-parent families, children in two-parent families, and children with low-educated parents (parent(s) have a high-school diploma or less). In samples restricted to children in single-parent families, the ARRA expansion raised SNAP participation among mixed-status families and the size of the effect is somewhat larger (than that reported in Table 6), which is expected given their higher economic vulnerability. In samples restricted to children in two-parent families, the effect of the ARRA expansion on SNAP participation among mixed-status families is positive, but statistically insignificant. In both cases, increased SNAP participation did not lower food insecurity. When the sample is restricted to children with low-educated parents, ARRA expansion raised SNAP participation among mixed-status families, and there is a corresponding decline in food insecurity. In all models, estimated effects on children with all-citizen family members are modest and statistically insignificant, and for all-non-citizen members, estimates are often negative and statistically insignificant. These findings are reported in Table A4.

Published Online: 2013-11-16

Published in Print: 2014-01-01

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https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0083