Food insecurity is widespread among college students nationwide and can interfere with their education. However, we have little evidence on whether existing food assistance programs can help improve student outcomes for those who participate.
In this working paper, we examine the impact of sustained Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation on early academic success among California community college students. We use linked administrative data from all 116 California community colleges, FAFSA records, and monthly SNAP participation data from 2014-2018.Â
We compare outcomes for SNAP-eligible students who participated throughout their first year with observably similar eligible students who did not participate or participated for just a few months. We focus on first-time, full-time students who had participated in SNAP in the year before entering college, and use propensity score weighting to ensure that participants are compared only to similar non-participants.
We find that sustained receipt of SNAP benefits during the Spring term increases the probability of earning 30+ credits in Year 1 by 1.4 percentage points and persistence to Year 2 by 2.6 percentage points. Results are robust across alternative estimators and treatment definitions. These results indicate that food insecurity causally reduces student success, and that nutrition aid programs can both reduce food insecurity and help promote students’ academic progress.
Suggested citation: Chirikov, I., Rothstein, J. (2026). The Impact of Nutrition Assistance on College Student Success. California Policy Lab, University of California. https://capolicylab.org/the-impact-of-nutrition-assistance-on-college-student-success/