Demonstrating the Value of SNAP-Ed in Illinois
Overview
For over 30 years, Illinois SNAP-Ed served a statewide nutrition education initiative, delivered by the University of Illinois through Illinois Extension and the Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion. The goals of Illinois SNAP-Ed were to improve healthy eating and physical activity among families with limited incomes to reduce risk of chronic disease, increase access to healthy foods to improve nutrition security, and create community collaborations focused on obesity prevention. Since 2021, Altarum has served as the external evaluator for Illinois SNAP-Ed, collaborating with Illinois Extension to conduct a variety of mixed-methods evaluations of SNAP-Ed initiatives. Through these efforts, Altarum evaluated the rollout of the Eat.Move.Save. social marketing campaign and assessed the return on investment (ROI) for Illinois SNAP-Ed programming. These evaluation efforts continue to inform community-based nutrition education programming, social marketing efforts, and large-scale public health investment decisions.
Approach
Altarum conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Illinois SNAP-Ed’s social marketing campaign, which was designed to promote healthy eating and physical activity in communities having high concentrations of families with lower incomes. The evaluation included population-level surveys of the priority audience, followed by surveys of local staff and partners to gather their feedback about the campaign.
In parallel, Altarum led a ROI analysis to assess the potential societal value and expected ROI from improved health and behavior change caused by Illinois SNAP-Ed programming. Using SNAP-Ed participation data and evidence from the scientific literature, Altarum developed an economic model to estimate future health and societal benefits associated with SNAP-Ed activities, including social marketing, direct and indirect education, and policy, systems, and environmental changes. This analysis quantified avoided cases of food insecurity and obesity and estimated downstream impacts on health care spending, life expectancy, and lifetime earnings.
Results
Altarum’s evaluation demonstrated that the Eat.Move.Save. campaign successfully reached priority populations and was associated with meaningful actions toward healthier behaviors. The campaign was well-received by staff who felt the messages supported their work, and by partners who believed the content aligned with their organization’s efforts, was appropriate, community-centered, and effective for reaching low-income households.
The ROI analysis showed that Illinois SNAP-Ed programming is expected to produce meaningful future economic benefits from increased future earnings, increased life expectancy, and decreased future health care costs. Illinois SNAP-Ed is estimated to have averted 586 cases of food insecurity and 5,056 cases of obesity in a year, generating a total societal value of between $75.0 million and $135.3 million dollars. The budget reconciliation bill that ends funding for the SNAP-Ed program after fiscal year 2025 eliminates future economic benefits identified in this analysis. This analysis provides evidence that the cancellation of the SNAP-Ed program will not only increase food insecurity for low-income American families, but could result in a net economic loss to society.