A new study by economists at the University of South Carolina found that kids whose families got their monthly SNAP benefits several weeks before a big math test did worse on the test than those who got their benefits closer to the test date, reports NPR.
The study, “When Does It Count? The Timing of Food Stamp Receipt and Educational Performance,” looked at how students in grades 3 to 8 in South Carolina performed on a statewide math test between 2000 and 2012. Its findings contribute to the body of evidence that links overall health to academic performance. Studies have shown that SNAP families regularly run low on food as their benefits run out toward the end of the month.
In South Carolina, SNAP benefits are distributed during the first 10 days of each month, with different families getting benefits on different days. Students in grades 3 through 8 take an annual math exam on Wednesday of the second school week in May. “Now, the second Wednesday of May falls on different dates each year,” says NPR, “so if your family received food stamps on the 10th of April, for example, and the exam falls on the 8th of May, you’re likely to have gone hungry for several days before the test.”
“Researchers not only compared kids who have eaten well to those who are hungry,” NPR reports, “they also compared the math performance of those who have eaten poorly to their own math performance in another year when they’ve eaten well” in the days before the exam.
The study considered performance on a single math test, but SNAP depletion is a monthly problem, meaning that the real effects are likely to be much larger. “This is happening to these kids every month,” whether there is a big math test or not, says Orgul Ozturk, an economist at the University of South Carolina and the lead author of the study. “Over the course of nine months, it adds up. They are hungry every month. The cumulative effect is very significant.”