When Getting a Job Makes You Go Hungry
Media Contact:
Sophia Friesen
Manager, Research Communications, 麻豆学生精品版
Email: sophia.friesen@hsc.utah.edu
Three months ago, you left your country fearing for your life.
Now, you鈥檙e learning to navigate a new city, where the street signs are in a new language. You鈥檙e learning to navigate social interactions that operate on slightly different rules. You鈥檙e applying for jobs to support your family. You鈥檝e figured out how to get to the grocery store that sells food your kids will eat鈥攁nd how to use food assistance programs to get it.
Except that today, those benefits have unexpectedly stopped working. You have no job, no savings, no broader network of friends. And now, you have no food.
What will you do?
Key points:
- Utah refugees face very high levels of food insecurity.
- Food insecurity spikes when refugees become ineligible for food assistance.
- Proposed solutions include improving education about resources and increasing access to gardens.
IMPACT: Timely interventions to reduce food insecurity could benefit health and save the U.S. healthcare system billions.
This is the situation that faces many newcomers to the U.S. Incoming refugees face very high levels of food insecurity鈥攗p to 85% for particularly vulnerable populations. Now, identifies unexpected 鈥渄anger zones鈥 when the risk of going hungry is highest and proposes solutions to help new residents thrive.
Patterns of hunger
Researchers interviewed Utah refugees from eight countries to learn when they were most likely to have trouble affording food鈥攁nd some of the answers were 鈥渟hocking,鈥 says research assistant professor of population health sciences at 麻豆学生精品版 and the first author on the study. Most surprisingly, he says, 鈥淔inding a job can make refugees more food insecure.鈥
Resettlement agencies heavily focus on empowering refugees to attain financial independence by getting a job. But often, a refugee鈥檚 first job is unstable and low-paying. Their new income is enough to disqualify them from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP benefits, or food stamps)鈥攂ut not enough to cover food on top of housing and utilities. And if that first job ends, refugees find themselves back in the deep end.
Another pressure point is when SNAP applications should be renewed. When they arrive in the U.S., refugees are enrolled into SNAP by a caseworker at a resettlement agency. But to maintain benefits, most refugees must reapply for SNAP every six months. Many aren鈥檛 informed that they need to do this鈥攐r taught how to reapply. Some people whose SNAP benefits expired went without benefits for up to two months, despite being eligible for them the whole time.
Information is key
Interviewed participants proposed a variety of strategies that could help address or reduce food insecurity鈥攁nd one of the most actionable is better information. Translated information on topics like food banks and how to apply for SNAP could be a low-cost measure to help empower refugees to find enough food.
Refugees also proposed increasing access to gardens so that they could grow their own food. 鈥淢ost of these refugees have a gardening and farming background,鈥 Sharareh says. 鈥淭his is what they are good at.鈥
A program called connects refugees with opportunities to grow food and sell it in farmers鈥 markets. But most interviewed refugees were unfamiliar with the program鈥攁nother area where simply improving information could make a difference.
Sharareh emphasizes that reducing food insecurity will benefit the economy as a whole, due to reduced societal and health care costs from food insecurity-related diseases. 鈥淔ood insecurity is costing the U.S. health care system more than $53 billion annually,鈥 he says. 鈥淪o besides having a public health impact, addressing food insecurity can have a positive economic impact on U.S. society.鈥
In the future, Sharareh hopes to continue to collaborate with community partners, resettlement agencies, and refugee organizations throughout Utah to develop some of the strategies refugees suggested, especially by addressing the information gap. 鈥淲e can at least make sure that refugees know where to go when they need help,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hese refugees are exploring a new culture, a new society, a new language, and will become U.S. citizens. They need time. But in the meantime, what if we just make sure that they have the information they need?鈥
If you鈥檙e having trouble getting enough food, you can or
You can find more or in-person at the
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The results are published in PLOS One as
The work was supported by the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah鈥檚 Vice President of Research Incentive Seed Grant Competition.