Project Mentor
Dr. Cristina Connolly
Department: Agricultural and Resource Economics
Research Project Overview:
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal assistance program that provides funds to low-income and food insecure households across the United States. “Double Bucks” programs, which incentivize spending SNAP benefits at farmers’ markets, have been established in a variety of states with the dual purpose of improving healthy food access for low-income households while also supporting local agricultural producers. These programs are generally structured such that they double funds spent on local products. For instance, if a household uses $10 of SNAP benefits to purchase food at a farmers’ market they receive tokens for another $10 to buy additional produce. The objective of this project is to assess the impact of these doubling programs on a national scale by comparing SNAP spending at targeted markets before and after program implementation.
Role of a SHARE Summer Apprentice:
This project should especially appeal to students interested in equity, food justice, local and regional food systems, and/or food policy. It is expected that students will develop a better understanding of how food policies are structured, including the underlying politics, as well as how they are evaluated. Students will learn how to conduct a literature review, including how to critically analyze studies in order to synthesize them into a coherent narrative. Students will also gain experience in data collection and management.
The student will be guided and mentored through the entire research process through weekly virtual meetings. We will begin with an overview of the history of food policies in the United States. Students will learn the process of a literature review, including following UConn library’s Literature Review LibGuide. They will then conduct their own review of produce incentive programs in the U.S., with an emphasis on evaluation studies. Concurrently, they will be reaching out to state agencies to acquire data on Double Bucks programs. In the last part of the project they will create one large dataset and analyze it using basic summary statistics.
Summer Schedule/Time Commitment:
While it is anticipated that students will work approximately 10 hours each week, there is flexibility depending on project status and student schedules. Other than the weekly meetings students can generally work on their own time.
Preferred Qualifications:
It is expected that students will have experience in Excel, and understand how to compute and interpret basic statistics.
To Apply:
Applications are closed for this apprenticeship.
Click here to view an outline of the application questions. There are no additional questions specific to this apprenticeship application.