The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) is a nationwide nutrition education and obesity prevention program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA-FNS). In Arizona, the SNAP-Ed program is administered by Arizona Health Zone1, a public/private partnership that operates throughout the state to implement community nutrition education programs and policy, systems, and environmental change (PSE) interventions to encourage healthy eating, increase physical activity, and maintain appropriate caloric balance for healthy body weights. Programmatic activities engage people in low-income households that receive or are eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. An integral partner in this statewide effort is the University of Arizona, Department of Nutritional Sciences - Cooperative Extension SNAP-Ed program (UA SNAP-Ed).
The UA SNAP-Ed is a local implementing agency (LIA) that provides nutrition and physical activity education classes and outreach through community events in a majority of Arizona’s 15 counties and is actively engaged in implementing PSE approaches for obesity prevention. The UA SNAP-Ed delivers direct education to youth and adults in community programs and schools, providing resources and ideas for healthy food choices and physical activities. Complementing direct education interventions, PSE approaches aim to change the environment to make healthy food and physical acvitity choices easier and include strategies in Food Systems (access to nutritious foods) and Active Living (access to physical activity). Over the last five years, the UA SNAP-Ed has received approximately 40% of AZ Health Zone’s federally- awarded funds, making it one of the principal LIAs receiving competitive grant funds from the AZ Health Zone.
This report summarizes the total annual economic contributions of the UA SNAP-Ed program spending, including multiplier effects, to the Arizona economy for fiscal years 2013-2016. Although presented together in this study, results provide a snapshot of economic activity in a given year and are therefore not cumulative over time. Updates to this study will occur annually, as data become available.