SNAP Campaign 2012
The SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Awareness Program) Awareness Campaign was launched in February 2012. It is part of the Hunger-Free Minnesota action plan, one of the ways Hunger-Free Minnesota will increase access to more meals for hungry Minnesotans.
Newly Unemployed Audience (four posters, left); Senior Audience (right).
The purpose of the campaign is simple: to encourage two particular audiences to find out if they qualify for SNAP benefits. You can see the two audiences and the call to action in the posters above, which will be displayed anywhere these two groups congregate. Food banks, food shelves, food pantries, meal programs and other community organizations that work with Minnesotans in need have received campaign materials at their request.
One of the audiences the campaign is designed to reach is the newly unemployed, or people whose financial situation recently has been affected by unemployment. Through research, Hunger-Free Minnesota learned that many times, the newly unemployed simply do not know anything about SNAP, or that the program can help them pay for food during the time they are looking for work. The posters (and other materials, including electronic ads on job-search websites) show everyday people who are using SNAP benefits, and are translated into Somali and Hmong languages to reach those populations, also. The call to action is simple. Call the Minnesota Food HelpLine to find out if you qualify for benefits. If you do, you can find out how to apply for them.
The second audience is seniors. Many seniors want to, and can, continue to live independently. Research showed Hunger-Free Minnesota that the situation here is a little different. Seniors don't like to ask for help and sometimes are under the impression that SNAP is only for families, or that a senior's benefit will take food out of a child's mouth. None of this is true. Seniors also may not understand eligibility requirements. The call to action is the same. Make the call to the Minnesota Food HelpLine to find out if you qualify.
Door hanger, placemat, table tent, stickers.
Mailing insert, stuffer insert, poster, postcard (front and back).
The second two groups of materials show the variety being deployed in catching the attention of the audiences Hunger-Free Minnesota is trying to reach. Materials can be distributed where Minnesotans in need live, congregate, meet, look for jobs, talk to outreach specialists or shop for food. Hunger Solutions Minnesota is administering the campaign and will report back periodically on its success.
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SNAP Facts
In 2010, 40 million Americans, including more than 16 million children, lived in households that couldn’t afford enough food. That’s one in six Americans — and one in five children.
Hungry families live in urban, rural and suburban areas. The vast majority of hungry Americans are not homeless. They simply do not have enough money to meet all their financial obligations, and food frequently is sacrificed.
Most hungry Americans are either low-wage workers, children senior citizens or people with disabilities. Most hungry families are white.
Out of families with children suffering from food insecurity and hunger,
- 68 percent contained at least one adult working full-time
- 10 percent had at least one adult working part-time
- Seven percent had an unemployed adult actively looking for work
- Eight percent were headed by an adult with a disability.
Because low-income neighborhoods can be “food deserts” lacking healthy food options, and because nutritious foods frequently are expensive, hunger and obesity often go hand-in-hand. It has to do with choice and affordability.
As late as the 1960s, there still were pockets of Third World-style hunger and malnutrition in America. This prompted congressional action to expand the Food Stamp Program and Summer Food Service Program; and to create the National School Breakfast Program and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) boosts the economy. It creates jobs for those who grow, pick, process, manufacture, ship warehouse, wholesale and retail food. Every dollar spent on the program generates $1.84 in U.S. economic activity.
SNAP expands when need is great and contracts when times are better. Low wages and rising unemployment added 14.7 million people to SNAP during the presidency of George W. Bush, and the continuing recession added another 14.2 million during Barack Obama’s presidency (as of October 2011). However, during economic prosperity in the late 1990s, SNAP enrollment diminished.
Reasons people don't apply for SNAP:
- Don’t think they qualify
- Think benefits are too low to make the effort
- Application process is cumbersome, takes too long
- Stigma of being on “food stamps”