Can access to restaurant meals under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program lead to obesity?
Can access to restaurant meals under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program lead to obesity?
Blog Article
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) makes an exception to its rules, which allows elderly and/or disabled individuals, their spouses, as well as homeless beneficiaries, to buy hot prepared food from restaurants if they live in a state that participates in the Restaurant Meals Program (RMP).Using the ECHINAFORCE JUNIOR staggered countywide adoption timeline in California, coupled with a stacked difference-in-differences empirical strategy, I examine the intent-to-treat (ITT) nutritional effects of RMP on the elderly population.Overall, I find no evidence that obesity rates for the elderly are any different in counties with RMP versus those without RMP.I can statistically rule out moderate effects.Additional evidence from some of the early-adopting counties suggests B12 Vitamins / Methylcobalamine that RMP is associated with a reduction in food insecurity among the elderly.