From Food Deserts to Fresh Food: The Role of Digital Accessibility in Nutrition Assistance Programs

One in 10 U.S. households experience food insecurity, with millions of low-income families lacking access to fresh food. In response, federal and state governments recently launched the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Online Purchasing Pilot (SNAP Online), enabling SNAP benefits to cover online food purchases. Although prior research suggests that the SNAP Online program may increase overall food consumption, its impact on fresh food consumption remains unclear. This research leverages NielsenIQ consumer panel data and employs a Difference-in-Differences approach to address this question. Our findings reveal that the SNAP Online program increases fresh food consumption among low-income households by 7.1%. However, the effect is minimal in areas with limited access to online grocery delivery and among households with poor prior fresh food consumption habits. These results underscore the potential of supply-side policies, such as expanding online purchasing options, to improve fresh food consumption. They also highlight the importance of addressing demand-side barriers and enhancing digital accessibility to maximize the effectiveness of nutrition assistance programs.

This paper was accepted by D. J. Wu, information systems.

Funding: Z. Li received financial support from the National Science Foundation Division of Social and Economic Sciences [CAREER Award 2243736].

Supplemental Material: The web appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2025.00012.