Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—commonly known as SNAP and formerly known as Food Stamps—is the largest food assistance program in the United States. In recent years, Maryland’s SNAP program has served more than 600,000 individuals each month. The studies listed below examine households and adult recipients of the SNAP program in Maryland as well as those who have left Maryland's SNAP program.

Reports are free of charge, and may be downloaded from this page.

Characteristics & Outcomes of Exiting SNAP Households in Maryland: 2010-2020
(December 2023) Jessica Gagliardi, Lauren A. Hall, & Letitia Logan Passarella

This is an inaugural report on SNAP closures in Maryland. While offering valuable insights into the characteristics of households leaving the SNAP program, this report delves into their demographic profile, benefit histories with SNAP, employment and earnings before SNAP entry and after exit, and returns to the program. All unique closures occurring between SFYs 2011 and 2020 (n=844,925) are examined; this period captures SNAP exits during the recovery from and economic stability after the Great Recession, as well as the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: 2022 Jurisdictional Profiles
(July 2023) Jessica Gagliardi & Lauren A. Hall

These state- and jurisdictional-level profiles complement the recently released profile of Maryland SNAP Households in 2022. Each jurisdiction has a one-page profile that examines all households in a jurisdiction that received SNAP during SFY 2022. It includes characteristics of households as well as demographics and employment information for adult recipients.

Maryland SNAP Households, 2022
(June 2023) Jessica Gagliardi, Lauren A. Hall, & Letitia Logan Passarella

This report examines the 535,893 unduplicated households that received SNAP for at least one month during state fiscal year (SFY) 2022.

The ABAWD Time Limit in Maryland: Impacts on Employment and SNAP Participation
(August 2022) Lauren A. Hall

Throughout 2016, Maryland’s ABAWD time limit waiver expired across 11 jurisdictions, creating a natural experiment to test the effects of the policy change. This report examines the employment and SNAP participation of 235,545 unique ABAWDs who received SNAP between 2015 and 2017. These ABAWDs had a total of 911,591 quarters of SNAP receipt during this time. ABAWDs’ quarterly observations were divided into treatment (time limit waiver ended) and control (time limit waiver continued) groups. Using descriptive and quasi-experimental methods, we tested the effects of the time limit waiver expiration on employment and SNAP participation.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: 2021 Jurisdictional Profiles
(May 2022) Jessica Gagliardi & Lauren A. Hall

These state- and jurisdictional-level profiles complement the recently released profile of Maryland SNAP Households in 2021. Each jurisdiction has a one-page profile that examines all households in a jurisdiction that received SNAP during SFY 2021. It includes characteristics of households as well as demographics and employment information for adult recipients.

Maryland SNAP Households, 2021
(March 2022) Lauren A. Hall

This report examines the 572,623 unique households that received SNAP for at least one month during state fiscal year (SFY) 2021.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: 2020 Jurisdictional Profiles 

(May 2021) Haley Smith & Lauren A. Hall

These state- and jurisdictional-level profiles complement the recently released Profile of Maryland SNAP Households, 2020 report. Each jurisdiction has a one-page profile that examines all households in a jurisdiction that received SNAP during SFY 2020. It includes characteristics of households as well as demographics and employment information for adult recipients. Each profile also highlights changes between pre-pandemic and pandemic households.

A Profile of Maryland SNAP Households, 2020: Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(April 2021) Lauren A. Hall 

This report examines all households that received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in Maryland for at least one month during SFY 2020 by two cohorts: (1) pre-pandemic cohort—households that began receiving SNAP between July 2019 and March 2020; and (2) pandemic cohort—households who began receiving SNAP between April and June 2020.

 

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