Informing Food and Nutrition Assistance Policy
Victor
Oliveira
Since 1998, Congress has provided ERS with
funds to study and evaluate the Nation’s 15
domestic food and nutrition assistance programs.
These programs provide participants with food, the
means to purchase food, and nutrition education.
In recent years, about one in five Americans, at
some time during the year, have participated in
at least one of these assistance programs, which
account for over half of USDA’s annual budget.
ERS established the Food Assistance
and Nutrition Research Program (FANRP) to carry
out the evaluation. Findings from FANRP studies
include the following:
- Over half of all new entrants in the Food
Stamp Program exit the program within 8 months.
- In 2006, 11 percent of U.S. households were
food insecure, including about 30 percent of
households headed by single women with children.
These and other FANRP findings have informed
public debate on food and nutrition assistance
programs. For example, one FANRP-sponsored study
found that maternal obesity in early pregnancy
more than doubles a child’s risk of obesity
at ages 2-4. As a result of this study, a new
nutrition risk criterion—“at risk
of becoming overweight”—was added
to the criteria used to establish participation
eligibility in the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Low-income infants and preschoolers born to mothers
who were obese in early pregnancy are now eligible
for nutrition education and WIC-approved foods.
A recent ERS report highlights some of the key
research findings from over 600 publications completed
during the program’s first decade. The report
discusses research on food and nutrition assistance
programs’ effects on the diets and economic
well-being of needy Americans, how well program
benefits are targeted and delivered, and the efficiency
and effectiveness of program administration.
The report also discusses research
on a number of topics that cut across programs,
including linkages with the economy, food security,
welfare reform, and childhood obesity. In conjunction
with this report, ERS developed an electronic database
of all FANRP-supported reports and articles, searchable
by topic, title, lead author, and the data used.
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