(Selected research findings from FY 24)
New food retail environment measure approximates a household’s exposure to a healthy food retail space
Many commonly used food retail environment (FRE) measures are based on the presence or number of food stores within a specified area. These measures often treat stores equally and do not account for factors such as varying distances and the healthfulness of available choices, which limit their accuracy and usefulness. The study explains how USDA, Economic Research Service utilized the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, in conjunction with Circana’s OmniMarket Core Outlets, and USDA’s Purchase to Plate Suite, to develop a household-level Food Retail Environment Healthfulness Quality (FREHQ) measure to address these limitations. The FREHQ measure has advantages over other measures of the FRE in that it allows researchers to investigate the influence of the FRE for households that reside in the lowest quality food retail environments.
New data product provides monthly detailed food prices by granular food categories and geographic areas
Food prices can impact U.S. consumers’ food security, food choices, and diet quality, and price changes can vary across the country and across food types. Reliable granular data about the food price landscape are a necessary tool for economic research on household food choices and access to healthy and affordable food. The report introduces the Food-at-Home Monthly Area Prices (F-MAP) data product, a new publicly available data resource that includes monthly average unit values and price indexes for 90 food-at-home categories across 15 geographic areas of the United States for 2016–18. The report also introduces the USDA, Economic Research Service Food Purchase Groups food classification system. The F-MAP data product is modeled after the Quarterly Food-at-Home Price Database previously published to report food-at-home prices from 1999 to 2010.
Food security is estimated to improve in 2024, compared to 2023, for most of the 83 countries covered by the International Food Security Assessment
Webinar: www.ers.usda.gov/newsroom/events/2024/09/12/webinar-international-food-security-assessment-2024-34
Millions of people worldwide face food insecurity and do not have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. This report utilizes the demand-driven International Food Security Assessment (IFSA) model to assist the USDA and its stakeholders in estimating food security trends in 83 low- and middle-income countries. The IFSA report continues the series of Global Food Assessments that USDA, Economic Research Service began in the late 1970s. One of the main findings described in this IFSA report is that compared with 2023, there are 313.0 million fewer people estimated to experience food insecurity in 2024, associated with an average of 3.4 percent growth in per capita income in these countries and the easing of price inflation.
In 2022, 19.3 percent of individuals aged 15 and older who were involved in at least a little of the grocery shopping in their household engaged in online grocery shopping at least once in the past month
U.S. consumers source the majority of daily calorie intake from home-prepared meals, but there is a rising trend in online grocery shopping among them. Examining the drivers of online grocery shopping can inform program, policy, and retailer decision making—given the potential for online grocery shopping to improve food access, foster healthier purchases, and alter the food retail landscape. This report uses nationally representative data from the USDA, Economic Research Service to examine the prevalence and frequency of online grocery shopping, the methods of receiving groceries purchased online, and the primary motivators prompting U.S. consumers to buy groceries online. The analysis reveals that shoppers more likely to buy groceries online than their counterparts were female, ages 15–24, non-Hispanic White, married or partnered, from a household with young children, more educated, and income ineligible for SNAP benefits.
From Federal fiscal years 1969 through 2022, the National School Lunch Program served 236 billion lunches, and peaked in 2010 with about 5.3 billion lunches served in one year
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the Nation's second-largest food and nutrition assistance program. The program operates in about 100,000 schools and provides billions of meals to tens of millions of children and adolescents each year. For this study, USDA, Economic Research Service examined NSLP’s rules and regulations, studied program trends using data from USDA, Food and Nutrition Service and other sources, and reviewed numerous NSLP-related research publications. This report provides an overview of the NSLP, documents major changes to the program since 2008, and examines historical trends and participant characteristics. It also summarizes research on the financial status of school food authorities, program participation, the nutritional quality of school lunches, the impact of the program on the diets of children and adolescents, issues facing the program, and research and data needs.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)had an annual budget of $6 billion and served more than 6 million people each month in fiscal year 2022
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental foods, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to healthcare and other social services to low-income, nutritionally at-risk women, infants, and children up to 5 years of age. The USDA, Economic Research Service periodically reports on research findings relevant to WIC policy and program operations, often following major changes in the program’s design. The 2024 edition explains how WIC works, discusses program trends, and summarizes research findings on key economic outcomes and policy issues facing the program, including program impacts on participants’ diet quality and health, barriers and facilitators of program access, and State agency efforts to contain program costs. The report also outlines temporary changes to WIC in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the infant formula supply chain disruptions that occurred in 2022.