Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Small Grants Program: Executive Summaries of 2004 Research Grants

by Eileen Stommes

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 science scholars in these issues. The report includes summaries of the research projects that were awarded 1-year grants in summer and fall 2003. The results of these research projects were presented at the December 2004 Small Grants Program conference. The projects focus on the economics of obesity, food insecurity and childhood obesity, food assistance program participation and household well-being, community influence on food assistance and dietary choices, and welfare reform and food assistance participation. Several of the projects focus on specific populations, such as people living in the rural South and those living on American Indian reservations.

The studies summarized herein were conducted under cooperative research contracts with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Program (FANRP). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.

Keywords: Food assistance, nutrition, food security, food insecurity, hunger, obesity, childhood obesity, food spending, Food Stamp Program, food stamps, WIC, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program

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