Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2003, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households were food insecure at least some time during that year. The...

The two-tiered meal reimbursement system instituted in 1997 within the child care homes portion of the Child and Adult Care Food Program added new duties for sponsoring organizations. Is the reimbursement of sponsors' administrative costs adequate now that tiering has added income status...

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides both nutrition education and supplemental foods containing nutrients determined by nutritional research to be lacking in the diets of pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, infants, and children....

Empirical studies have shown that food stamp participants spend a higher proportion of their benefit on food than they would with an equivalent amount of cash. Our study demonstrates that this result can be explained by the decision-making behavior of multi-adult households. Multi-adult...

A "healthy school meal environment" not only gives students opportunities to make healthy meal choices but also encourages them to do so. The extent to which a healthy school meal environment affects the success of USDA's school meals programs is currently a subject of debate. The policy...

The Second Food Security Measurement and Research Conference (February 23-24, 1999) was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service and Economic Research Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Center for Health Satistics. The...

The mission of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk. WIC provides nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education, and referrals to...

In 2000, 8.8 million children received food stamps, making the Food Stamp Program a crucial component of the social safety net. Despite its importance, little research has examined the effect of food stamps on children's overall well-being. Using the Current Population Survey from 1989 to 2001,...

Each school day, millions of U.S. children receive free or reduced-price meals provided through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Recent studies have indicated that many students who are not eligible for free or reduced-price NSLP meals are receiving the meals. How large is this...

This report summarizes research findings from the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Small Grants Program. The Economic Research Service created the program in 1998 to stimulate new and innovative research on food assistance and nutrition issues and to broaden the participation of social...