The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education are collaborating to send annual emails to low-income college students to inform them of potential eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the departments announced on Nov. 7. 

The program will address a gap revealed by a 2024 Government Accountability Office report, which found that an estimated 59% of food-insecure students potentially eligible for SNAP were not receiving SNAP benefits. 

At UT, food insecurity is more than three times higher than the national average of 10.5%, according to a Student Government Food Insecurity Action team survey from 2022. 

“When we look at food insecurity as something that students face, you can sector it out to two things, being access and affordability,” said Dat Duong, co-director of the action team, now called the Food Security Agency. “It’s a Venn diagram, and food insecurity just lies right in between, in that intersection.” 

According to a USDA spokesperson, the emails will be sent to students who have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and whose Student Aid Index is no more than zero. In 2023, 7.6 million students were income-eligible for SNAP, according to FAFSA data. 

Students enrolled in college more than half-time are only eligible for SNAP benefits if they meet certain exemptions in addition to income requirements. Some exemptions include working at least 20 hours per week, participating in a work-study program or taking care of dependents under six years old. 

Sweccha Guntamukkala, co-director of the Student Government Food Security Agency, said meeting the requirements can be challenging for many students, who are often unaware of their eligibility and how to provide documentation for it. 

In response to the knowledge gap Duong and Guntamukkala identified, Valeria Martin, the Office of the Dean of Students’ assistant director for basic needs, launched a SNAP benefit advising program at the end of September. Staff from UT Outpost, Student Outreach and Support and Texas Financial Wellness are trained to assist students through the SNAP application. 

As a certified Texas Health and Human Services community partner, the team provides one-hour advising sessions for students seeking support at any stage of the SNAP process. As a community partner, Martin said the team can directly contact HHS staff to address time-sensitive concerns. 

“The foundation of why we’re doing this is that students qualify more than they think they do,” Martin said. “I think the misconception is ‘I’m still independent of my parents, even though I’m here, in college, by myself and funding myself.’ People count themselves out pretty quickly without giving it a go or seeing if it’s possible.”

Martin said the approval period can be anywhere from 10 to 45 days. 

While Duong recognizes how the SNAP program addresses issues of access and affordability, he said more can be done to understand the root causes of food insecurity and how it impacts demographic groups differently. 

Guntamukkala said one of the Food Security Agency’s key goals is to conduct an updated survey to assess the state of food insecurity on campus, as well as how the issue impacts student mental health. 

Alexandra van den Berg, professor in behavioral science and health promotion at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, said methods to measure food insecurity among households and families may not be appropriate for college students who are becoming increasingly diverse. 

Van den Berg has expressed that some eligibility requirements are unfairly barring many students from accessing the help SNAP offers. The first is the Vehicle Asset Test, which places a $15,000 limit on the value of the first vehicle a household can own, and the second is work requirements, which are often hard to consistently track for self-employed individuals. 

Ultimately, van den Berg said students’ living arrangements, financial independence and access to institutional resources are factors to consider when studying food insecurity. 

“The underlying factor of food insecurity is lack of money,” van den Berg said. “If someone is food insecure, it’s not that they are (only) food insecure. They also don’t have enough money for other things, and that just intersects with everything.”