The Food Stamp Program provides assistance to millions of families each month. This report examines how long families tend to receive food stamps, and what circumstances lead them to enter and exit the program. About half the families that begin receiving benefits participate for eight months or...

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides food assistance to more than 47 million low-income Americans every month. It aims to reduce hunger by facilitating beneficiaries’ access to enough food for a healthy, active lifestyle, otherwise known as "food security." Our study...

From 2000 to 2008, the average number of Food Stamp Program (FSP) participants rose by 65 percent because of increases in eligibility and participation. These changes occurred during a period that included declining national unemployment—the same period during which states were being...

This report looks at spending patterns for food, housing, health care, and other categories of low-income households in 2005. It compares allocations of consumption across spending categories for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households, eligible nonparticipating households,...

This report provides information on the participation patterns of infants and children who were enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) from 2001 through 2003. Several aspects of participation were examined including at what age and under...

Although concern about the quality of children's diets has mounted along with increases in obesity, little is known about the food they purchase in school from a la carte cafeteria sales, vending machines, snack bars, school stores, and other sources. This report describes methods that could be...

Finds that overall, the Food Stamp Program reached fewer eligible individuals in 1997 than in 1996; the participation rate decreased by 5 percentage points to 63 percent. This rate was affected by eligibility restrictions on aliens and able-bodied adults without dependents. For households without...

This report, the largest and most comprehensive examination of Americans who seek emergency food relief and the charitable network that serves them, notes that more than 23 million people received emergency hunger relief from Second Harvest in 2001, an increase of about 7.5 percent or nearly two...

The Child and Adult Care Food Program subsidizes nutritious meals served to eligible children and functionally impaired adults participating in family day care homes, day care facilities, emergency shelters, and afterschool programs. This report discusses the results of a pretest and pilot study...