Assessing SNAP resources at U.S. Four-year institutions: Prevalence, predictors, and misalignment with student economic need.

Authors

Sally L Bullock, Ella Williams, Rylie Brosius, Christopher R Marsicano

Published in

Journal of American college health : J of ACH. Pages 1-14. Sep 08, 2026. Epub Sep 08, 2026.

Abstract

To assess SNAP resource prevalence at U.S. four-year institutions and examine whether institutional characteristics and student economic need predict availability.
A national sample of 481 U.S. four-year institutions of higher education.
We conducted a cross-sectional systematic website review (July 2023-July 2025), documenting six SNAP resource types and using Poisson regression to examine predictors.
Nearly 40% of institutions provide no SNAP resources. Passive resources were most common (external links: 57%; general information: 48%); resources requiring greater investment were rare (coordinators: 15%; on-campus SNAP/EBT acceptance: 7%; screening tools: 6%; partnerships: 5%). Institution size, public control, and region predict SNAP resources; Pell grant enrollment does not. State hunger-free campus policies are associated with coordinator availability only.
SNAP resources may not be distributed based on student need. Addressing this potential misalignment requires federal eligibility reform, stronger state policies, and institutional commitment at under-resourced institutions.

PMID:
42711674
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 09 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.