USDA invests in food program research

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USDA invests in food program research

By staff reporter

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=71668 & m=1fneo30 & c=xeiqgoegavfxtla

30/10/2006 - The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is to invest almost

$2m in evaluating its food and nutrition assistance programs, in an

effort to enhance these on the back of advice from external researchers.

The $1.8m grant in cooperative agreement awards will examine the

performance of the Food Stamp Program, the Special Supplemental

Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Child

Nutrition Programs.

The research, which will be conducted in eight states, is designed to

help ensure access to healthy diets for all Americans, according to the

nation's Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner.

All of the research projects are awarded by the Food Assistance and

Nutrition Research Program (FANRP), administered by USDA's Economic

Research Service (ERS). They aim to determine the impact of economic

incentives in food assistance programs, food choices and obesity.

The largest grant within the new initiative - $267,000 – will be awarded

to Washington's Urban Institute, which will examine whether the Food

Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) is still " an

acceptable alternative " to Food Stamps.

In the study, the FDPIR, which has been an alternative to the Food Stamp

Program since 1977, will be compared to the Food Stamp Program with

regard to eligibility, participation, administration, and possible

effects on health and nutrition.

A further $240,000 will go to Mathematica Policy Research in Pronceton,

New Jersey, in an effort to examine the effects of participation in the

Natioanl School Lunch and Breakfast programs on childhood obesity.

Key factors that will be examined include students' dietary behaviors,

such as their consumption of beverages, high caloric foods and fruits

and vegetables. According to the USDA, this research will shed light on

the overall effect of school meal participation on obesity as well as

distinguish the roles of the food environment both within and outside of

school.

In the same vein, a further $235,000 will be used by the Urban Institute

to examine the effect of participation in the Food Stamp Program and the

National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs on child weight using data

from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of

1998-99 and a range of econometric approaches.

In particular, the study will examine participation in food assistance

programs and its effects on food intake and food security and their

subsequent effects on child weight, said the government agency.

Some $180,000 will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of WIC on

maternal behavior, health and birth outcomes.

Other grants will be used to examine: economic survival strategies of

low-income families, including under what circumstances these families

use the Food Stamp Program; effects of potential changes to state and

federal asset eligibility policies for the Food Stamp Program;

relationships of certification error rates in the Food Stamp Program to

state program policies, caseload characteristics, economic conditions,

and expenditures on certification-related activities; and relationships

between local food environment, household food insecurity, and obesity.

" Over the course of a year, USDA's food assistance and nutrition

programs directly touch the lives of one in five Americans by providing

children and low-income families access to nutritional food. This

research will help ensure access to healthy diets for all Americans, "

said Conner.

--

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