Nutrition Education
Related Reports
- Household Food Security in the United States in 2011
- Alleviating Poverty in the United States: The Critical Role of SNAP Benefits
- The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2011 Annual Report
- How Much Time Do Americans Spend on Food?
- Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2010
- Household Food Security in the United States in 2010
- Food Security Improved Following the 2009 ARRA Increase in SNAP Benefits
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program Final Report: Fiscal 2010 Activities
- RIDGE Project Summaries, 2009: Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics Program
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2009
- The Food Assistance National Input-Output Multiplier (FANIOM) Model and Stimulus Effects of SNAP
- Eating and Health Module User's Guide
- Changing Participation in Food Assistance Programs Among Low-Income Children After Welfare Reform
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2008
- Does SNAP Decrease Food Insecurity? Untangling the Self-Selection Effect
- Food Spending Declined and Food Insecurity Increased for Middle-Income and Low-Income Households from 2000 to 2007
- RIDGE Project Summaries, 2008: Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics Program
- Food Insecurity in Households with Children: Prevalence, Severity, and Household Characteristics
- State Variations in the Food Stamp Benefit Reduction Rate for Earnings: Cross-Program Effects from TANF and SSI Cash Assistance
- Rising Food Prices Take a Bite Out of Food Stamp Benefits
- RIDGE Project Summaries, 2007: Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics Program
- Food Stamps and Obesity: What Do We Know?
- The 2002 Farm Bill: Provisions and Economic Implications
- Are Lower Income Households Willing and Able To Budget for Fruits and Vegetables?
- Informing Food and Nutrition Assistance Policy: 10 Years of Research at ERS
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2007
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2006
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—Food Spending Patterns of Low-Income Households: Will Increasing Purchasing Power Result in Healthier Food Choices?
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—Overview: Can Food Stamps Do More To Improve Food Choices?
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—Stretching the Food Stamp Dollar: Regional Price Differences Affect Affordability of Food
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—Higher Cost of Food in Some Areas May Affect Food Stamp Households’ Ability To Make Healthy Food Choices
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—How Do Low-Income Households Respond to Food Prices?
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—Nutrition Information: Can It Improve the Diets of Low-Income Households?
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—Making Healthy Food Choices Easier: Ideas From Behavioral Economics
- Can Food Stamps Do More to Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective—How Can We Tell If We Are Making a Difference? ERS Efforts To Improve Evaluation of Nutrition Outcomes
- Can Food Stamps Do More To Improve Food Choices? An Economic Perspective
- Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs and Obesity: 1976-2002
- Could Behavioral Economics Help Improve Diet Quality for Nutrition Assistance Program Participants?
- Characteristics of Low-Income Households With Very Low Food Security: An Analysis of the USDA GPRA Food Security Indicator
- Who Has Time To Cook? How Family Resources Influence Food Preparation
- The 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes' Effect on Food Stamp Program Caseloads and Benefits Issued
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2005
- The Food Assistance Landscape: FY 2006 Midyear Report
- Nutrient Adequacy of Children Participating in WIC
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2006, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Food Assistance Landscape, March 2006
- Food Assistance Landscape, September 2005
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2005, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Healthy Eating Index
- Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Body Weight Status
- Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Meal Patterns, Milk and Soft Drink Consumption, and Supplement Use
- Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Clinic Measures of Iron, Folate, Vitamin B12, Cholesterol, Bone Density, and Lead Poisoning
- Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations
- Children's Consumption of WIC-Approved Foods
- Issues in Food Assistance—Effects of WIC Participation on Children's Food Consumption
- An Economic Model of WIC, the Infant Formula Rebate Program, and the Retail Price of Infant Formula
- Estimating Longrun Food Stamp Program Caseloads
- Nutrition and Health Characteristics of Low-Income Populations: Volume I, Food Stamp Program Participants and Nonparticipants
- Food Stamp Certification Periods and Payment Accuracy: State Experience During 1997-2001
- Understanding Fruit and Vegetable Choices—Research Briefs
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2004, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2002
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2003, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Final Report: Fiscal 2002 Activities
- Issues in Food Assistance—How Unemployment Affects the Food Stamp Program
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- Issues in Food Assistance—How Do Food Assistance Programs Improve the Well-Being of Low-Income Families?
- Issues in Food Assistance
- Issues in Food Assistance—Effects of Changes in Food Stamp Expenditures Across the U.S. Economy
- Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
- Issues in Food Assistance—The Standard Deduction in the Food Stamp Benefit Formula
- Measuring the Well-Being of the Poor: Demographics of Low-Income Households
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2002, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Household Food Security in the United States, 2000
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Final Report: Fiscal 2001 Activities
- Understanding the Food Stamp Benefit Formula: A Tool for Measuring the Component Effects
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2001, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Final Report: Fiscal 2000 Activities
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 2000, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Final Report: Fiscal 1999 Activities
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 1999, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Final Report: Fiscal 1998 Activities
- Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, Fiscal 1998, Competitive Grants and Cooperative Agreements Program: Description and Application Process
- Provisions of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996
Related Amber Waves Articles
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program supports State
nutrition education activities which focus on improving the
nutrition of SNAP participants. ERS supports nutrition education
through its research and evaluation studies.
This page provides the following information/resources:
Nutrition Education
Grows
Nutrition education is an increasingly important aspect of the
Nation's efforts to improve diets of low-income Americans. USDA's
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) provides guidance and funding for
nutrition education through what was formerly known as Food Stamp
Nutrition Education (FSNE), since renamed as SNAP Nutrition
Education, or simply SNAP-Ed. SNAP-Ed activities focus on improving
the likelihood that SNAP participants and eligibles will make
healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose active
lifestyles consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPlate.
State participation in SNAP-Ed is voluntary and requires a State
resource match as well as an approved budget and implementation
plan. State agency commitment to nutrition education has grown
rapidly in recent years:
- In 1992, the first year of FSNE funding, seven States had
nutrition education plans approved by FNS, with total Federal
funding of $661,076.
- In fiscal year 2007, all States had approved FSNE budgets.
- Approved Federal dollars totaled over $341 million in FY 2009,
covering half of the total amount that States spent on SNAP-Ed in
that year.
Download chart data in excel
format
ERS complements other Federal organizations that provide
nutrition support by addressing research issues surrounding food
and nutrition assistance programs. ERS activities include reviews
of nutrition education activities, reviews of research and
evaluation priorities, assessments of various outreach techniques,
and studies of relationships between food assistance programs and
other human services provided by the government or private
sector.
SNAP-Ed Guidance
FNS provides guidance to States for using the most effective
nutrition education tools and strategies available in developing
their State plans. This guidance encourages States to focus on the
following behavioral outcomes when assessing nutrition education
needs, developing SNAP-Ed objectives, and evaluating outcomes:
- Eat fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or
low-fat milk products every day.
- Be physically active every day as part of a healthy
lifestyle.
- Balance caloric intake from food and beverages with calories
expended.
Reports of SNAP-Ed/FSNE
Research Activities
Evaluation of Food Stamp Program Nutrition
Education--ERS and FNS sponsored a set of papers to support
evaluation of SNAP-Ed/FSNE nutrition education activities.
Published in the Journal of Nutrition Education in
September 2001, the papers identify tools to assess nutrition
education needs of low-income families and evaluate outcomes of
nutrition education programs directed toward this
audience.
The Society for Nutrition Education (SNE)-A leader in nutrition
education research, has collaborated with ERS and other Federal
partners to improve evaluation of SNAP-Ed/FSNE activities. Results
of that effort can be seen in a series of three papers published in
the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior in
2006:
Developing Common Core Survey Questions to Assess Key Dietary
Behavioral Outcomes of FSNE: Launching the Research
Process-Participants at an April 2004 workshop hosted by ERS chose
potential survey questions from a Prototype Notebook of questions selected from
nutrition education literature to use in assessing SNAP-Ed/FSNE.
Speakers focused on practical applications of evaluation and
validation of dietary behavioral outcomes of SNAP-Ed/FSNE.
Meetings and Conference Proceedings--USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and
Extension Service (CSREES) provides links to conference slides,
papers, and other materials of interest to SNAP-Ed administrators,
collaborators, and others involved in nutrition education for
low-income persons.
Additional ERS Nutrition Education Research:
Research Tools for SNAP-Ed
ERS and FNS provide a number of web-based utilities that provide
either information or data for use by the research community.
Nutrition education research:
Related Research Tools:
-
State-County SNAP Participation--An interactive web-based
mapping utility that displays program participation and benefit
levels at the national, State, and county levels.
- State
Fact Sheets--Get State- and national-level statistics on
population, employment, income, and poverty.
- Atlas of Rural and
Small-Town America--Get sociodemographic data through a
map-based interface.
- American
FactFinder--Use this Census Bureau source for population,
housing, economic, and geographic data from Census 2000, the 1990
Decennial Census, the 1997 and 2002 Economic Censuses, the American
Community Survey, and the Population Estimates Program.
- American Community Survey--Provides up-to-date
profiles from the Census Bureau on America's communities. Get
timely economic, social, and housing indicators for communities and
population subgroups.
Other Nutrition Education
Resources
Food and Nutrition Service--Provides current
information on nutrition education in the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program.
SNAP-Ed
Connection--A resource system for SNAP-Ed nutrition education
providers. Educators nationwide can use this site to find the tools
and information they need to provide quality nutrition education
for low-income audiences.
National Institute of Food and Agriculture--NIFA
(formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service--CSREES)--NIFA facilitates communication among Federal,
State, and local partners and provides programmatic support to
university contractors for nutrition education through the
land-grant system.
National Web Site for SNAP-Ed Nutrition
Education--This NIFA site provides State-level information and
contacts on SNAP-Ed activities.
Community Food
Security Assessment Toolkit--Provides detailed instructions on
conducting food security assessments for community-based nonprofit
organizations and business groups, local government officials,
private citizens, and community planners.