Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Case Study

In this essay, I will discuss how Emma and Myrtle use their SNAP benefits to choose where to go shopping for a healthier diet in both of their 2-week meal plans. They both chose different grocery stores as Emma lives in an area where she can get access to a full-service grocery store close to her home and Myrtle lives in a food desert and only has access to a convenience store. With their SNAP benefits, we will see how much of a difference does living near a full-service grocery have over convenience stores groceries.

From the start, we know that they both are eligible for SNAP benefits If you are elderly, so they are the exception to employment requirements (USDA "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)" 2020)(Team "Food Stamps Eligibility - SNAP Program Eligibility Help" 2019). We can see the major advantage in Emma’s living environment and being able to have a full-service grocery store. As their inventory has all that you need from your fresh and frozen meats, canned, fresh, and frozen fruits and vegetables; dairy products; cereals; canned fish; bread products, etc. (Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration "Full-Service Grocery Stores" 2020). This is a disadvantage that convenience stores have. This makes things hard for those like Myrtle to choose what she really needs to be maintaining the diet she has in place, as for Emma she has a variety to choose from. From the list of things available, we see that Emma’s store’s availability allows her to be able to pick fresh vegetables and fruits so that she can be healthier, unlike Myrtle who has the least amount of choices when trying to be healthy as there are little to no fruits and vegetables where she purchases her groceries making it harder to be healthy.

In Myrtle’s case, she’s going to make some hard decisions as she has to think of all the benefits of what she getting and how those will benefit her in her situation. As in her knowledge of realizing her wants or needs for a product in the store as this can play a vital part in her staying on track to what she thinks she needs and what she wants to eat. Though she is limited to certain foods she can still choose the better options than going with foods she does not need. Along with this, she has to do some consideration and evaluation as she has a clearly defined goal to be healthy because of her health condition. This manipulates the ability for her to stay on track and not be able to maintain the benefits. She also has to make sure not to overcomplicate her situation as she is so limited to what she can get and making sure she can make smart purchasing decisions.

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When looking at the way social determinates work in creating challenges for individuals we have to look at why they do and which ones impact the most. Grasping that we can identify the Social Determinants of Health. For these individuals who rely fully on SNAP, we can understand how they can fall into the Social Determinants of Health categories like stress and unemployment (“Social determinants of health”, 2019). As when one is using SNAP and located in a food desert they can become stressed due to the lack of nutritious foods and being able to even get their food stamps or where they can go to use them as well. Other possibilities of inconveniences that can occur to cause stress during that time like being able to find something that is healthy. Now when talking about unemployment and how that Social determinant of Health affects people we can inline it with stress (“Social determinants of health”, WHO, 2019). Being unemployed and living month to month on SNAPS can affect the way you are able to feed yourself and limits you to how much food you can get as well. This is something that makes it difficult to purchase the groceries that you need to maintain a healthy and well-lived life. These two together play a huge role in why food stamps were created to limit hunger in the World for those who are unable to afford a meal.

 Now when we look at addressing how to fix these problems we first have to identify possible solutions to address the food desert issues we have. For one solution to the stress that occurs from living in a food desert, I feel there should be a system that allows those who are unable to get food to get a weekly box of supplies they can use based on what they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This support and donating from SNAP or any local farms, stores, community garden, etc could lead to deeds of beneficence to those families or people that really need the help to feed themselves (McCormick "Principles of Bioethics" 2020). With that solution, we can also use the goal of those solutions to help with unemployment. As those who don’t have a could get a job working at the community garden and increase the amount of fresh produce is given out for everyone to be able to choose a healthier food option instead of what they are limited to. This could be very beneficial in getting justice for those who were unemployed and didn’t have anywhere to turn to for help (McCormick "Principles of Bioethics" 2020). Both of these solutions should allow for all to be able to eat healthy without having to be in an area that has the availability limiting the stress and struggles of health problems form eating things that are bad for our bodies.

References

1.)   “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).” USDA, 16 Feb. 2020, www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program. (USDA "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)" 2020)

2.)   Social determinants of health. (2019, November 15). Retrieved from (“Social determinants of health”,2019) http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/

3.)   “Full-Service Grocery Stores.”Full-Service Grocery Stores, Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, 16 Feb. 2020, https://abra.dc.gov/page/full-service-grocery-stores (Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration "Full-Service Grocery Stores"2020)

4.)   McCormick, Thomas R. “Principles of Bioethics.” Principles of Bioethics | UW Department of Bioethics & Humanities, University of Washington Dept. Bioethics and Humanities, 16 Feb. 2020, depts.washington.edu/bhdept/ethics-medicine/bioethics-topics/articles/principles-bioethics (McCormick "Principles of Bioethics" 2020).

5.)    Team, Eligibility. “Food Stamps Eligibility - SNAP Program Eligibility Help.” Eligibility, 22 Feb. 2019, eligibility.com/food-stamps. (Team "Food Stamps Eligibility - SNAP Program Eligibility Help" 2019)