2022
Language:
English

The effects of aging services and the supplemental nutrition assistance program on food insecurity among older Georgians: 2018–2020

Using administrative data from Georgia covering January2018–August 2020, we estimated the effect of services pro-vided through the Older Americans Act (OAA) and theSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) onfood insecurity among older Georgians. Our sampleincluded those who received services prior to and duringthe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Forthe entire sample period, we found home-delivered mealsand other OAA services reduced food insecurity by 3%and 4%, respectively. During COVID-19, the effect ofSNAP on reducing food insecurity significantly increasedfrom 2.1% to 4.7%, while the loss of“traditional”congre-gate meals services increased food insecurity by 7%.